Spring Wonder
by Kensu
Summary: It's the spring before the fateful summer that tore our hero's little clique apart. Akane is reaching for the brass ring, Komatsu is working on a new film, and something happens to Manami that will change her life forever.
1. Chapter 1

KOR: Spring Wonder !  
Kimagure Orange Road Spring Wonder Chapter 1 

Written By: Chris Schumacher Based on the characters and situation created by Matsumoto Izumi.

They stood in winter-chilled grass before the worn stone. The marble had faded over the years. Gone was the melodious mixture of vibrant blues and cool greys. The stone had sat here for many lonely years, a sentinel of the dead.  
Etched on its surface were lines, swirls, loops, dashes and points which represented thoughts: symbols. The largest symbols meant:  
spring, sun, beauty, sunrise. The beautiful rise of the spring sun. These symbols were a name: Akemi Kasuga.  
Today was the first day of spring, sixteen years after Akemi's last breath. Those that Akemi left behind stood before the marker,  
dressed all in white. There were three children that Akemi wouldn't have recognized, and a husband who was almost two decades older.  
Kyosuke only had one memory of his mother, an inconsequential one:  
little more than a tattered strip of film in his mind, an eternally replaying image of a woman walking across a room. He couldn't even remember her face.  
Neither Manami or Kurumi had ever known their mother: their entrance into the world had forced her exit. Manami always lived with the guilt of what her life cost her family.  
As she stared at her sister, she wondered if she felt the same kind of guilt. Though Manami wondered if Kurumi had yet the emotional depth to hold such a view.  
Takeshi remembered the day it happened. He'd been in the room. He remembered gushing over Kurumi and her "cute little bald head.  
Then the horrible silence that followed, as his wife said nothing. He turned, his head feeling heavier than it possibly could be. The doctor was concerned, nurses ran into the room. There was a whining noise from a machine in the corner. This can't be happening: it just can't.  
This was supposed to be one of the happiest days of his life... When the doctor pronounced the time, he felt like a shard of cold, crystal-clear glass thrust into his heart. How can you move between so many extremes so rapidly? How could this be real? How could his daughters never know their mother?  
Kyosuke looked at his crying father. He felt a little embarrassed,  
but that was dwarfed by the horror he felt. His father was the bedrock of their family. If he could be overcome with emotion like this... Then his dad was just a normal person like him... or his mother. Oh god, his father was going to die one day. How could he live in a world without him? How could the world go on without his father in it?  
Kurumi had trouble summoning sorrow for someone she never knew,  
and only felt a nagging sense of guilt. She spent the whole time thinking about spoons.

- - -

Laughter filled the smoky air around their table. Kurumi stood on the table and danced jerkily to the Duran Duran song the DJ was playing.  
"What's this one called?" Kyosuke asked.  
"'Avenue Skill', I think," Komatsu said.  
Kyosuke ran those two words through his brain. He remembered very little English, and the name didn't make much sense to him, but hey, it sounded good. That's what mattered, right?  
"Get down here, Kurumi, before you break something," Ayukawa said.  
Kurumi stuck her tongue out and did a few kicks in the direction of the dance floor. Hatta laid back in his seat, trying to get a look up her skirt. Kyosuke reached across the table and punched him in the arm.  
"You no good pervert!" Kyosuke shouted.  
"Hey! You know you'd look if Hikaru was up there!" Hatta said.  
Kyosuke sighed through his nostrils. It was hard to admit, but he probably would.

It was too dark for Komatsu to get a good peek. He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. He couldn't believe nobody wanted to be part of his next project. TAP GUN 2: This Time It's Personal--how could that possibly fail?  
Hikaru refused to work with him because of TAP GUN's ending.  
Kasuga told him to stick it. Ayukawa said life was too short.  
Kurumi couldn't sit still during filming, and had consequently only shown up in 30 seconds of the finished film. Even that was a bitch to shoot,  
with Kurumi's wild gesticulations and frequent ad-libbing.  
If the movie had been better received, they might be more inclined to help. However the reviews in the Indie Film magazines were some of the worst he ever read. There was one that seemed okay at first;  
but then he realized that "derivative", in a non-mathematical context,  
was a bad thing.  
Kurumi's foot came down on the bowl of beer nuts. One nut shot up at an angle and hit him in the eye.

"I'm blind! My film career is over! Now the world will have to do without the next Stephen Spielberg!" Komatsu whined.  
"Just as well," Akane said, sipping her beer. "One of them was too many"  
"What?" Hikaru sputtered. "You don't like Spielberg? But that E.T.  
was sooo cute"  
"You know, I was just thinking about that movie the other day. I'm starting to think it was a parable about nudism," Madoka said.  
"Oh?" Kasuga asked, as he succeeded in pulling his sister down from the table. "How's that"  
"If those guys didn't walk around naked, they'd have pockets. And if they had pockets, they could carry around communicators.  
Then it wouldn't have taken E.T. a month to build that damn thing"  
Madoka said.  
"Wow, you really spent a lot of time thinking about that movie,  
didn't you?" Manami asked.  
Madoka started to blush. She wasn't about to admit she'd seen the movie 17 times. Though she stopped crying when E.T. died around the fifth time.

Akane stared at Madoka's beautifully blushing cheeks. She felt a giddy warmness fill her chest. Then she felt her stomach cramping.  
She was so close to Madoka right now. She could physically reach out and touch her... But Madoka had no idea how she felt, so there might as well have been an ocean between them.  
But looking at Madoka now made her feel warm inside. Though she was sure that was partially due to the half-gallon of beer in her gut.  
Sometimes she woke up in the morning, and before she opened her eyes, she imagined a nude Madoka next to her. She'd sit there, watching Madoka sleep. Seeing Madoka's face--far too often drooping with sorrow, or contorting with rage--in an expression of peaceful bliss.  
She wished she could stick a teddy bear in the bed next to her and use her powers of illusion to make it look like Madoka, but she was the only person who those powers didn't work on.  
Ironically, that was the only good use she could find for the damn thing.

- - -

They left Disco Moebius at 11:27, exactly five minutes after Kurumi vomited for the first time; they did not leave by choice.  
The slightly-chilly night air was a welcome change from the tobacco smoke-filled interior of Disco Moebius. Madoka could feel her head clearing already, though she still saw small haloes around lights.  
There wasn't a cloud in the sky, the stars shone brightly far above them.  
Kurumi sat on the curb, her head between her knees. Her stomach gave off threatening noises. Madoka sat next to her, her arm draped over Kurumi's shoulders.  
"What're we going to do?" Manami said. "Dad can't see this"  
Kasuga sneered at his inebriated sister. "Have you even heard of 'self-control', Kurumi! We're going to get grounded for this"  
"Keep your voice down!" Ayukawa said.  
"Ooohh... If I'm sitting still, why is the world still moving"  
Kurumi said.  
"Keep your eyes open, Kurumi. Closing them only makes it worse"  
Madoka said.  
Kurumi opened her eyes and looked at the street. "That's a little better... I still fell like I'm on a roller coaster, though"  
"How long is this going to take to wear off?" Akane asked.  
"Hmmm," Hikaru said. "That was a whole glass of brandy, so I'd say it'd be at least five hours"  
"That's four hours after our curfew," Manami said.  
"She can dry out at my place," Madoka said.  
Suddenly Kasuga stopped pacing. Manami looked relieved. Akane looked a little happy. Madoka had lived alone ever since her sister had moved out. It was a large house, with many bedrooms and bathrooms: the perfect place for a drunk to lay low.  
"Well, okay then," Kasuga said.  
Madoka jumped to her feet, and pulled Kurumi up. "The trouble is getting there. Hikaru and I've been ticketed for underage drinking before. We're going to have to be careful"  
Hikaru put on her serious face. "Right. I'll run on ahead and run interference. Be careful though, no puking in the street"  
Hikaru started to run in the general direction of Madoka's house.  
"Aside from Hikaru, we've all had a bit to drink. So let's split up, take parallel streets. Kurumi and I'll stick together," Madoka said.  
Akane, Manami and Kasuga scampered off. Madoka slung her arm around Kurumi and helped her down the street.

Kyosuke was glad that Ayukawa chose to escort Kurumi. Aside from not wanting to be vomited on, he didn't think he could stand up to a cop the way Ayukawa could.  
He was about 3 kilometers from Ayukawa's house, so he'd get there in about half an hour. He reached the end of the current block and looked down the alley. He heard footsteps from the street on the other end. After a moment, Darth Vader walked into the alley. He turned to face Kyosuke and held his right hand out in a choking grip.  
Kyosuke started at the sight. He gritted his teeth and chided himself. "Very funny, Akane," Kyosuke said.  
A girlish chuckle came from within Vader's mask. The illusion faded away gradually, like fog in the wind.  
"Just trying to keep you on your toes, cousin," Akane said.

Later, Kyosuke heard familiar shuffling footsteps behind him. He turned around to see his sister walk towards him, moonlight gleamed off the lenses of her glasses.  
"Mind if I walk with you oniichan?" she whispered when she got near. "I'd rather not walk alone"  
"Sure," Kyosuke said, and the two began to walk in lockstep.  
Manami suddenly thrust her arm onto her brother's chest, and the two skidded to a halt. She pointed at the pavement, and her brother's gaze followed. There was an arrow on the pavement, drawn in eyeliner.  
Next to it was drawn a curly hiragana "hi.  
"Police box in the next block," Manami said.  
"Oh, yeah," Kyosuke said.  
They walked off the street, following the arrow, and found themselves in a park. There was another road that ran parallel, just over the hill. Kyosuke didn't remember there being any police boxes on it, at least not until they reached Ayukawa's house.  
"It's a bit... dark," Manami said.  
"It's all right, I'll be with you. And I don't think there's a thug on this planet that can take two ESPers at once," Kyosuke said.

Manami and her brother trudged through the newly mown grass.  
The only light Manami could see was cast from the street lamps far behind them, and a halo that crested the dark hill in front of them.  
She could barely see her hand in front of her face. She reached out and grabbed her older brother's hand. He returned the grip firmly.  
"Steady now, no reason to be frightened," her brother said.  
The small spasm of fear ended, and Manami calmed down. As long as onnichan was here, she thought, things would work out. He always took care of her, for as long as she could remember.  
She took in the shimmering stars high above them. It had been a very warm day, so it seemed strange that Orion, or any of the summer constellations, weren't in the sky.  
But back to onnichan... She found it strange that all of the things lacking in Komatsu were present in her brother. Was she using her brother as a template for her ideal partner? Was that a "well" thing to do? Even though it appeared, on the surface, incestuous, it didn't seem wrong. Why couldn't more guys be like her brother? Maybe they were, but they just acted differently towards their sisters than towards their girlfriends. She had to remember that there was things Komatsu wanted from her that her brother didn't.

- - -

"...and with it being so late, dad, I think you can understand"  
Manami said.  
Even though Kyosuke was sitting in an uncomfortable dining room chair, he found himself dozing off. He sat up, and the sight of his bespectacled sister on the phone snapped into sharp focus. So sharp,  
in fact, that he realized that he must be sober again.  
"Oh no, Kyosuke's already on his way home," Manami said, sparing her brother a glance.  
"Awww!" Kyosuke sighed.  
"And could you please pass the message on to Akane's parents as well? Thanks, love you, bye," Manami hung up the phone.  
"You're a very good liar," Kyosuke noted. "You should be a lawyer"  
Manami stuck her tongue out at him. Kyosuke smiled inwardly. It was nice to see her act immature again once in a while. It reminded him that, somewhere beneath that motherish persona, the Manami he grew up with still existed.

Several chunks of partially digested yakitori and french fries floated in the toilet. Kurumi pulled her head back, and closed her bloodshot eyes. She heard a clinking of glass and metal from behind her, and the soft padding footsteps of Madoka's slippered feet.  
"Here, drink this," Madoka said.  
"Whazzit?" Kurumi slurred.  
"It's better you drink it first," Ayukawa said.  
Somewhere in Kurumi's clouded mind something told her that made sense. She took the glass and quaffed the liquid inside. She tasted it for just a second, and it was unlike anything she'd tasted before.  
Or more to the point, like a bunch of things that she'd tasted before,  
but never together. She felt a heave starting.  
"Keep it down!" Madoka said urgently. "You'll thank yourself tomorrow"  
Kurumi fought the urge to hurl, and with a few deep swallows managed to keep the concoction down.  
"What was that?" Kurumi asked again.  
"Water, pickle juice, soy sauce, sesame oil..." she trailed off.  
Kurumi felt herself fighting the heaves again.

"Here," Madoka said, handing Akane the nightgown. "You'll have to change in here, Kurumi's still throwing up in the bathroom"  
Akane's mind raced; was Madoka going to change in front of her?  
That would be so... Oh, she sighed. Madoka walked into the hallway and closed the door behind her.  
That's a shame--Akane wasn't shy at all... Damn it.  
Akane started to pull off her tank-top, but stopped and looked around the room. She'd never been in Madoka's room before, she realized.  
Everything was so vibrant and light. There were no lame pastels, just bright, solid, primary colors.  
She walked over to her desk and looked at the bookshelf. Quite a selection. The Odyssey, The Great Gatsby (in English!), Harusame Monogatari (so, she had a macabre bent.  
Akane felt a knotting in her stomach. That horrible, all-too-familar feeling of hopelessness.  
Why didn't Madoka love her?  
Did she even realize how Akane felt about her? About how she lulled herself to sleep at night by imagining the pillow talk between them?  
She saw a picture of Kyosuke on Madoka's dresser. God, she couldn't believe that putz had a better chance of ending up with Madoka than she did. And he had Hikaru, too, and all she had was... Well,  
Yuki... But that was another case of unrequited love all together  
She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, filling her lungs with Madoka's scent. Madoka was so beautiful, so smart, so graceful,  
so perfect... Why was Akane so damned, to have this goddess enter her life, but as nothing more than a friend?  
She opened her eyes, and wondered how long she'd been in Madoka's room. She jumped up and pulled off her tank top, dropped her shorts,  
and pulled on the nightgown.  
She felt an electric pulse shoot up her spine as she did so. She suddenly felt warm in a very personal place. This was Madoka's nightgown. This piece of cotton had spent countless nights rubbing against her skin. She sniffed the sleeve, but smelled only the faintest hint of laundry detergent: Madoka's scent was gone.  
For a moment Akane considered putting on some of Madoka's panties:  
but she supposed that was crossing the line. That was the sort of thing that Komatsu would do.

"Has the room stopped spinning?" Madoka asked.  
Kurumi opened her eyes for a moment. "Yeah," she said weakly.  
Madoka smiled. Many families had hangover cures, but hers was the only one she knew of that had a cure for the worst parts of drunkenness.  
Madoka tucked Kurumi in. When she looked up, she saw that Kurumi was already fast asleep. She really envied someone who could fall asleep so quickly. Madoka was not the type of person who fell asleep in class or while watching TV. She needed to completely relax before she could sleep, and that usually took about forty-five minutes from the moment her head hit the pillow.  
While looking at Kurumi's peaceful, sleeping face, she felt an odd,  
warm tinge in her. She wondered if this is what it was like to be a big sister. The sweetly warm feel was tinged with bitterness, as she now regretted never having the opportunity.

In the living room the long-shuttered windows had been thrown open, and pure, cool spring air permeated the room. An old jazz melody lilted through the air, composed of strong and certain keystrokes from Katsuhiro Ayukawa's grand piano.  
Madoka's friends were gathered around the table in the center of the room. Each of them was enthralled by the deceptively simple tune that Madoka's slender fingers played for them.  
When she finished, they applauded.  
"Woohoo!" Hikaru shouted. "Wonderful as ever, Madoka"  
"You're truly talented," Manami said, breathlessly.  
"That's some of the most moving music I've heard in my entire life," Akane said.  
Madoka stood and took a bow. The applauding recommenced. Madoka walked over to the table, and sat down next to Hikaru.

They talked long into the night. The night air coming through the open window became cooler and crisper as the night wore on.  
The topic of conversation had turned to boys: as it always seemed to these days.  
"Komatsu?" Hikaru said. "Pffft. Complete perv. Don't let him get you alone"  
Manami started to turn a little red from embarrassment. Hikaru noticed she often did when the conversation veered towards sexual matters.  
"He's better than Hatta, though," Madoka said. "Hatta's got all the hormones and none of the brains. He gives lie to the myth of glasses denoting intelligence"  
"It's too bad they can't all be like sempai," Hikaru sighed.  
"Kyosuke?" Akane said with a snort. "He's Komatsu with bedroom eyes"  
"He is not! He's kind and honorable! Why he's never once tried to take advantage of me!" Hikaru said. She tried to keep the regret out of her voice.  
"I have to say, I couldn't hope for a better big brother," Manami sputtered, quick to change the conversation. "Though he's a little full of himself"  
"You've been rather quiet, Madoka," Akane said. "What do you think of Kyosuke"  
Hikaru noticed a strange tone in her voice; but she couldn't make sense of it. Madoka was silent for a long moment.  
Finally she said: "Well, if Hikaru likes him, that's good enough for me"  
Hikaru felt a suddenly tightness in her chest. Something was wrong; she felt like this sometimes when they talked about Kyosuke There was something wrong, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.  
"Have anyone of you had your first kiss yet?" Hikaru asked. "I really want my first one to be with sempai," she felt inclined to add.  
Manami let out a short, harsh laugh. "I'm so shy around guys,  
though I'm surprised Komatsu hasn't tried anything yet. I guess it would help if we actually went on dates instead of going out in groups," Manami said.  
"Kisses? Sure, I've done that lots of times," Akane said, sounding bored.  
"Which guys did you kiss?" Hikaru asked excitedly.  
"Uh..." Akane stared down at the table and mumbled: "No one you know. They're...um...in Hokkaido and all that"  
"I'm more concerned with finding that special someone than kissing," Madoka said. "When you find them, kissing's just a fringe benefit"  
Hikaru felt that stabbing sensation again.

"It's true!" Hikaru insisted. "I can't remember where I heard it from, but everyone seems to know it"  
"But what if you don't decide you're going to do it until you're already on the date?" Madoka asked.  
"Maybe it's to stop you from doing that. By wearing red panties,  
not only do you have something he finds sexy, it also tells him that you were planning to sleep with him all along," Akane said. "It takes the ball out of his court"  
"That's very Machiavellian," Madoka said. She smiled. "I like it"  
Akane felt her heart start to race. Madoka just complimented her!  
Madoka thought she was insightful! Akane couldn't help but crack a smile; though she was sure none of them knew why she was smiling.  
"But... what if you don't have any red panties?" Manami said,  
turning a little red herself.  
"We need to take her out and buy her some!" Hikaru said.  
"Oh no, no need!" Manami flustered. "I'm not going to be needing them any time soon"  
"Speaking of panties," Madoka said (Akane almost fell off her cushion). "I saw this weird pair when I was Shibuya last month. Have you ever heard of a t-back"  
"That sounds like some sort of shirt," Manami said. "Why do they call t-shirts that anyway? They aren't shaped like t's. And tank-tops don't look like tanks either; but they look more like t's than t-shirts do"  
Akane patted Manami on the head. "Someone needs a little sleep.  
What were you saying, Ma-, ah, Ayukawa"  
"Well a t-back doesn't really has a back, it just has this long strip of cloth. When I asked one of the clerks about it, she said it was for eliminating panty lines," Madoka said.  
"I bet it would really show off your ass, too!" Akane said. "I heard of those before, but I thought they were called g-strings"  
"Euphemism," Manami said. "G-strings have connotations of hookers and strippers. If you release something like that for 'good girls,  
you've got to change the name"  
"That must be a pain to wear," Hikaru said. "It's probably keep getting caught. You'd have to keep pulling it out"  
"Something that exotic is never going to catch on," Akane said.  
"People will only sacrifice comfort so far."

Much later, Manami and Hikaru were fast asleep. Madoka was nursing a seltzer and staring out the window. Akane got up to go to the bathroom.  
She walked past the bathroom, and tip-toed up the stairs, down the hall, and into Ayukawa's room. The window had been left open,  
showing the light blue horizon far off: it would be dawn soon. Only the brightest stars still shone in the dark blue sky.  
When she'd been in her earlier, a germ of an idea had taken root. Over the long hours of girl talk, it had sprouted into a healthy and full plan.  
When she had been here before, she had wondered why Madoka didn't love her. She thought she now understood. Madoka was her ideal, the person she most wanted to be. In order to win Madoka's heart, Akane must become hers.  
"I will do everything in my power to be the woman who can turn you," Akane said, her fist clenched before her. "I will be yours,  
Ayukawa Madoka"  
At that moment, the sun rose.

- - -

"They won't let us film on school property?" Hatta shouted.  
Komatsu winced. "Not so loud. I had a lot to drink last night"  
The two were walking to the local Burger King to have an early lunch. Hatta had spent the night on the floor of Komatsu's room.  
Komatsu's mother had discovered this when she stepped on what she assumed was a pile of dirty clothes, and it groaned. Her scream had woken Komatsu several hours before he wished.  
Not that Komatsu had wanted Hatta to spend the night. They had walked home together, as Komatsu's house was closer. After Komatsu went inside, he assumed Hatta went home. But when he looked out his bedroom window, he saw Hatta in earnest conversation with a tree in his front yard. It was then that Komatsu decided he wasn't safe to walk home.  
"I guess that kills 'The Slutty Schoolgirl Murders'," Hatta said.  
"That, and the fact that there was no way in hell I would have signed off on that," Komatsu said. He really didn't get slasher films.  
He thought that teenagers should be rewarded, not punished, for having sex so early in life.  
"How about a silent movie? That would cut the costs in half, since we wouldn't have to rent any sound equipment or buy tape. We could do something Buster Keatonish," Hatta said.  
"No thanks. I have no desire for a broken neck," Komatsu said.  
"That was only one time," Hatta grumbled.  
"I'm not going the art house route," Komatsu said. "We need something original, but recognizable. Something challenging, but comforting. Something groundbreaking, but familiar. Something complex,  
but simple"  
"You are aware you're contradicting yourself," Hatta said.  
But Komatsu barely heard him, he started to walk across the street, to where a puppet theatre had been set up. A couple of kids were sitting on the sidewalk, looking enthralled.  
"I am neither drunk or out of mind," one of the puppets said.  
"This is it!" Komatsu said.  
"I am simply here to ensure that the sentence is carried out swiftly," another puppet said.  
Komatsu turned to Hatta. "This is it!" he repeated. "Our national legend, the bedrock of our very culture! A story everyone recognizes"  
"It's just a stupid puppet show," Hatta said.  
"No, you fool! Can't you see? This is what George Lucas did! He purified Western culture into its purest form, or more to the point he got some sucker to do it for him, then he threw in ray guns and it got him millions of dollars!" Komatsu said.  
Hatta stared at the puppet show for a few more moments. "Yeah,  
but they've made a bunch of movies out of this story. How could you possibly expect to stand out? Are you going to make it a porno"  
Komatsu thought about that for a moment. "No, it would have to be yaoi then. I really don't like that. No, we're going to make it very popular by following in the footsteps of giants. We're going to make the 47 Ronin..." he paused for effect. "...In Space!"

- - -

Akane sat on her bed and stared at the wall. She'd gotten home almost an hour ago. After assuring her father she'd had a good time at Madoka's, she came up here to think.  
It was a question of restraint, she decided. Remembering that old novel Moby Dick (or rather, the general impression of the book she got from modern culture), she decided that she should set some limits on what she would do to win over Madoka.  
She'd gone wrong before by attempting to tear down Kyosuke. She had believed that by making Madoka hate him, she would look better.  
Although she didn't like Kyosuke, she found that she loved him. She cared what happened to him--and didn't want to cause him pain, either by action or inaction.  
Since she could not tear down her competitors, the only option was to make herself better in Madoka's eyes. This had been the idea she got last night, and through several hours of contemplation she'd realized it was the right one.  
Then she began to ponder one of the great eternal questions: how does one impress Ayukawa Madoka?

- - -

"Thanks for inviting us to lunch," Kyosuke said as he unwrapped his whopper.  
"Oh it was no problem at all," Komatsu said. "After all, it's the least we could do for the rising stars of the Japanese film industry"  
Kyosuke set his hamburger down and let out a long sigh. "You can't just let this go, can you"  
Kurumi said, in a raspy voice: "What's he talking about"  
"We've come up with an idea for a better movie," Hatta said.  
"It'll make us more famous than you could possibly imagine"  
"We're going to do the 47 Ronin... IN SPACE!" Komatsu said.  
Kyosuke rolled his eyes. "Where are going to get 47 actors from"  
"Well, they'll be wearing helmets, so we can double up," Komatsu said.  
"Having five people play 47 Samurai would require a lot more than DOUBLING UP!" Kyosuke said.  
"One person would have play approximately 9.4 ronin, yes, I get that," Komatsu said. "But it'll add to the charm of the movie"  
"But more than five of them couldn't be onscreen at any one time,  
don't you think the audience would notice that?" Manami asked.  
"Well, we could use dummies," Hatta said.  
"We already have two of them," Kurumi said, and stuck out her tongue.  
"Wait a second, you're going to have women playing ronin?" Kyosuke said.  
"Well, we're never going to show them without their helmets on,  
but yes," Komatsu said.  
"So you're just looking for a warm body, huh?" Kurumi asked.  
"Well..." Hatta said "I suppose we could write a new role"  
"A princess!" Komatsu said. "Every good epic needs a princess.  
We'll call her the princess... of silence"  
"Because she doesn't have any lines," Kurumi said. It was not a question.  
"No, she'll have lines," Komatsu said.  
"Then why is she the princess of silence?" Kyosuke asked.  
"Because we like the sound of it," Komatsu said.  
"Why don't you just call her the princess of pregnancy and bare feet?" Kyosuke said.  
"There's no way I'm going to be in your stupid movie," Kurumi said. "I have better things to do: like going to the dentist and stepping on rusty nails"  
"Count me out too," Kyosuke said. "I have a reputation to think of"  
"A reputation as a weak-willed, indecisive, waffling jerk"  
Komatsu asked.  
"Better than being a C-movie star," Kyosuke said with a snarl.  
"I'll help you," Manami said.  
"Oh! Thank you, thank you!" Hatta said. "You'll make a wonderful Princess of Silence"  
Komatsu regarded her with a stern look. "I'm afraid I must ask,  
Manami: are you helping us out of pity"  
Manami blushed. "I... I suppose I am"  
Komatsu shrugged. "Works for me. Welcome aboard."

- - -

Akane laid the marker down and stood back to admire her work.  
It was nothing more than a neatly grouped collection of words, but she felt an odd sense of satisfaction as she gazed at it. She had managed to completely dissect Madoka's character.  
Beautiful, graceful, musical, glamorous, cultured, "tough guy"/"bad girl" image... and at the very bottom was written "strange sadness.  
Akane started to play with a yo-yo as she stared at the chart.  
It helped her think. These qualities, she noted, are what made Madoka who she was. These were also the things that Akane loved about her.  
In order to become the ideal that Madoka would fall for, she would need to replicate each of these qualities in herself. Akane sighed:  
it was overwhelming.  
Beauty would be easy: she knew she wasn't bad to look at. Guys used to hit on her all the time until they realized what she was.  
Grace would be a hard one. She was always so hard-headed and ham-handed. Kyosuke once said that she moved around like an ape. She'd smashed his face into the pavement; or so she liked to remember. She wasn't much of a bruiser, she'd never done more than slap someone or fight during a field hockey game. But all that would have to stop, she realized.  
Akane gulped: something was wrong. Realizing that she had to monitor her actions from now on--it felt like she'd lost a part of herself. Could she truly change her actions? That's just so much pressure.  
She sat on her bed, a heavy frown forming on her face. After a moment she looked to the ceiling, where a picture of Madoka was plastered. She had to remember what she was doing this for. She had to remember WHO she was doing this for. What's a little personality change if she could wake up next to Ayukawa Madoka every morning for the rest of her life?  
Akane threw her shoulders back and let out a deep breath. She stood up and went back to the chart.  
Musical ability. She'd tried to play the trumpet as a kid, but couldn't get it to sound right. She'd told the band teacher that she couldn't get the trumpet to make the right noise. He'd looked at her like she was a retard. She hadn't picked up an instrument since.  
She looked at her hands: Madoka played the piano as well as the saxophone. In fact, she was better at the piano. Akane liked using computers: she could type over 80 WPM. Surely she could learn to play something like a piano?  
Except they didn't have a piano... Madoka had this great old upright piano in her living room that she practiced on. Akane supposed she could borrow the one at the school... but she was going to soon lose access to that one.  
Akane felt a cramp deep in the pit of her stomach. Yes, that was the part that wasn't on the chart, because she couldn't bring herself to put it on there.  
The key to winning Madoka's heart wasn't any of these things:  
though certainly, they would help. What she needed most of all was familiarity. And she couldn't gain that sort of familiarity during the few times they met on the weekends, and the rare times they met after school.  
The first step on this long road was by far the hardest. It was also one she could never take back once she committed herself.  
Akane needed to get herself expelled.

- - -

"Is something wrong, Akane? You didn't say a single thing during lunch," Michi asked.  
Akane looked up from her algebra book. "Didn't have much to say"  
Akane said.  
"You've been pretty quiet all day," Chie said, adjusting her glasses. "Something on your mind"  
"Oh, the usual things," Akane said with a shrug.  
Of course that was a lie. She'd spent all morning thinking of ways to get expelled. Graffiti wasn't enough to get her expelled. Property damage was, but then she'd have to pay for it and might even get in trouble with the cops. All the other methods she came up with involved hurting people, and that wasn't something she wanted to do.  
Anno-sensei came in from the hallway, readjusting her blouse.  
Akane cocked an eyebrow: she must've met the gym teacher in the equipment shed again. Maybe she could try to blackmail her... No, it was pretty much an open secret. Everyone who would have a problem with it already knew.  
Anno-sensei pulled out the waka book they'd been reading for the past two weeks. "I hope everyone's done their homework for today's Japanese class"  
A few students groaned. Akane indifferently pulled her Japanese folder out of her desk and took out a single sheet of paper. The poem had been deceptively easy to write. She had a great muse, after all.  
"Akane, would you like to read yours first?" Anno-sensei asked.  
"Not especially," Akane said, candidly. Insubordination would help, she suspected.  
Anno-sensei just stared at her, Akane eventually had to break eye-contact. She shuffled to the front of the room. She looked down at the poem and suddenly felt better. She set it on the podium and began to read:  
"The Beauty of Lady M In the cool moonlight,  
Her long hair shimmers,  
The color of midnight,  
Yet each strand glimmers

Smooth cheeks blush in the brisk night air,  
Bright eyes and sensuous soft lips,  
Her complexion so very fair,  
Her body's curve crests at her hips.

She wears a perfectly white kimono,  
Which shows the line of her perfect round breasts,  
Her body's frame is built like a willow,  
And its supple fruit her perfect round breasts,

Fabric hides the silky smoothness of her long legs,  
Bare feet as lovely as the Platonic ideal Under her skirt: lower cheeks, formed like perfect eggs,  
So lucky am I, that this Lady M is real"  
Her heart had begun to race as she read it, it was all so TRUE!  
She had expected some applause, or even just Anno-sensei telling her to take her seat: but there was nothing but unearthly silence.  
Akane looked up, and everyone in the room was staring at her in wide-eyed shock. Anno-sensei's mouth was hanging open.  
"You must understand why we find this poem of yours disturbing,  
Akane," the headmistress said.  
"No, I don't," Akane said. "Since when was an examination of feminine beauty a crime"  
"It isn't what you said in this poem that bothers us, it's why we think you said it," the headmistress said.  
Akane sunk into the chair, a defiant scowl crossing her face.  
"I wrote it as a self-portrait. It's the love I feel for myself, and shows how I find myself attractive. Now if you find self-love to be a bad thing, you should get rid of those Self-Esteem pamphlets in the student center"  
"I wouldn't describe your hair as 'the color of midnight', Akane"  
the headmistress said.  
Damn, Akane thought. "It's more broad then self-love, it's praising the female physique in general"  
"But you already said it was a self-portrait, Akane. And even if this ode to physique is all this is, that's just as bad," the headmistress said.  
There was an anger inside Akane that been there constant since her moment of self-discovery at the age of 8. This anger, which was usually nothing more than a soft buzz in her skull, suddenly spiked. Akane's face curled into a snarl as she began to shout at the headmistress.  
"What the hell is your problem, anyway? So what if I like women and not men? How is that any skin off your nose? For the love of Christ,  
why can't you just live and let live?" Akane bellowed.  
"Because, Akane-san, there is right and wrong in this world, and"  
the headmistress began.  
"Yes, I quite agree that there are some things which are inherently wrong. But I don't think that love between two consenting adults,  
regardless of gender, qualifies as wrong or evil! What kind of psycho are you that you can think that way!" Akane said.  
"Watch your tone, Kasuga-san," the headmistress said, with what Akane later realized was a dangerous tone.  
Akane rose and slammed her fist onto the desk. "You are nothing more than a small-minded bigot!"

Yokoi-sensei was explaining how to rationalize a denominator when she heard someone run down the hallway. As they got closer, she remembered that Keiko had gone to the bathroom about five minutes ago.  
The feet skidded to a halt before the classroom, and Keiko yanked the door open. She rushed in, panting. She tried to speak, but had to catch her breath first.  
Yokoi-sensei looked at her sternly. "Keiko, what's the meaning of this"  
"A-a-Akane!" Keiko finally managed to say.  
Yuki stood up from her seat. "What happened to Akane"  
"Akane... She's been expelled!" Keiko said.  
Suddenly Yokoi's scowl vanished, and she fell into her chair,  
speechless. There were gasps from all corners of the room; many were completely in shock. Several even started crying.  
Far off, the school clock struck the hour.

After the principal's secretary had tried three times to get Akane's mother on the phone, the principal had one of his student-toadies escort Akane off-campus. She then walked to the park across the street and sat on a bench.  
She stared at Hoshi All-Girl's School. She didn't hate Hoshi's;  
she'd enjoyed going there. She liked the students, the teachers, and she thought they liked her. That's why this hurt so damn much.  
The really funny thing is that she hadn't been trying to get expelled. She was trying to figure out a master plan, and this just fell in her lap. She couldn't help but smile at that.  
"Excuse me, miss, shouldn't you be in school?" a voice said from behind her.  
Akane looked over her shoulder and saw a police-man standing behind the bench. She recognized him as Officer Saito, who covered this neighborhood's truant beat.  
"I don't have a school to go to, I've been expelled," Akane said.  
"Surely you can do better than that," Saito said.  
Akane took the note to her parents the principal gave her and handed it to Saito. Saito unfolded the paper and glanced over it. He stiffened as he did so. He folded it over and handed it back to Akane.  
"Shouldn't you be going home?" Saito asked.  
"I just want to sit here for a while..." Akane said. Then she shrugged. "Besides, my parents aren't going to be back until 6 anyway"  
Akane thought Saito looked confused. He chewed on his lower lip for a few moments. Finally he said: "Stay out of trouble," and moved on.  
She wondered how long it would take to get into Kouryou; probably not tomorrow. Maybe if she went over and talked to the principal.  
Her parents would have to admire that kind of take-charge attitude.  
But she'd told Saito the truth: she really just wanted to sit here for a while, and ponder the life-chaning events that had taken place.

Yuki was halfway through her salami sandwich when Kaori came over to talk to her.  
"Guess you blew it, huh?" Kaori said.  
Yuki looked up from his fashion magazine. "What are you talking about"  
"Now that Akane's out of our school, any chances you had with her now approach zero," Kaori said.  
Yuki felt her nostrils burn, as they were wont to do when she felt grief. She shrugged it off; literally, so Kaori could see it.  
"I assume she's having a great time with that boyfriend of hers.  
I, of all people, should accept that you can't change or challenge how people feel," Yuki said.  
"Her boyfriend?" Kaori said, wrinkling her nose. "Oh! That Kyosuke guy"  
"Yeah, you met him?" Yuki said.  
"No, but I heard from Chie about that. He's actually her cousin.  
She was only pretending to date him to get her and Michi to stop their griping about her not having a boyfriend," Kaori said. "Just between you, me, and the salami sandwich: I hear she likes girls"  
Yuki started to feel her blood boil, but it was overshadowed by a bright deluge of hope. Akane liked girls! There was still hope.  
Then Yuki felt depressed again. How often was she going to see Akane, now that they didn't go to school together anymore?  
But she couldn't let an opportunity like this go. She couldn't allow this love to remain unrequited. She had to convince Akane to give her a shot: by any means necessary.

- - -

This will be where the rockets take off, Komatsu thought to himself. He took in the long fields of billowing green grass and smirked. He held up his Polaroid and snapped a picture, not bothering to look into the viewfinder.  
"I thought this was going to take place in space?" Hatta said.  
"Nah, you can't have it set completely in space. Either you're stuck making expensive effects shots, or cramped interior shots on expensive sets," Komatsu said. "What we do is we film on a day where there's no clouds, and we use Chromoa Key to turn the sky purple and drop in a couple of moons"  
"But those shots always look so fake! Remember the Master in that episode where Tom Baker died?" Hatta said.  
"Well, technology has come a long way in the past five years"  
Komatsu said.  
"And why are we here, anyway? These don't look much different than the fields by our school," Hatta said.  
"Because there are more girls here," Komatsu said with a perverted giggle.  
Hatta smiled. "I was beginning to think your newfound love of movies had neutered you"  
"Have to keep an eye out for Akane, though," Komatsu said. When Akane was around, he wasn't able to hit on girls. He felt threatened in a way he couldn't quite explain. Hatta seemed to feel the same way.  
Komatsu checked his watch. "What's taking them so long, anyway?  
We got let out half-an-hour ago"  
As if in answer, at that very moment, the school's bell rung for the final time that day.

"This place is going to suck without you," Michi said.  
"That's so true!" Chie said. "Everyone was saying that. Chikako-sensei was crying her eyes out when she heard"  
Akane continued to stare at the school building from her bench across the street.  
"Yeah, well, sometimes sacrifices have to be made," Akane said in a haunted tone.  
Chie squinted. "What are you talking about"  
Akane finally turned to her friends. "Never mind. Everything's going to be all right. We'll still be able to see each other on the weekends," she said.  
"But who's going to show the teachers their place?" Michi asked.  
"Who's going to force us to have extraordinary lives?" Chie asked.  
"Without you, the school's...normal." She spat out the last word like a curse.  
Akane jumped to her feet, and held up in her fist. It was a pose meant to inspire. "I'm moving on to greener pastures, my friends. I will finally win the love of Ayukawa Madoka"  
Michi rolled her eyes. "Not THIS again"  
Madoka? That was a girl's name, Yuki thought. So Kaori had been right: Akane had only been pretending to be straight!  
Yuki snuck another peek around the tree's trunk. The three girls were still deep in conversation, and didn't notice her. Yuki moved back behind the tree and leaned against its trunk.  
This complicated things, of course. She had competition, and her competitor was an unknown quantity. What kind of girl would it take to get Akane all weak in the knees?  
Akane was so strong, smart, and popular. What would it take to make her all gooey inside, and leave her lost for words? Who did she think about when she was in bed at night and reached down to.  
No, enough of that, Yuki upbraided herself. Just the half-formed thought had gotten her flushed. She let out a long, hot sigh.  
"Stupid teacher," a male voice growled. Yuki looked over and saw two guys crossing the street. One of them had something hanging around his neck that looked like half of a pair of binoculars. She had the strangest feeling she'd seen them before.  
"You gave up too easy! You don't think she was really going to call the cops, do you?" the one with glasses asked.  
The first one didn't reply to his friend, as he had noticed Yuki.  
He rushed over to her. "Hello cutie, I haven't seen you around before," he said.  
Yuki narrowed her eyes at him. She had trouble understanding the attraction women had to men in general, but she couldn't conceive of how someone could possibly find a slug like this attractive.  
She was about to use some colorful language to get rid of him,  
when she heard Akane chortle. She felt a hot spike of anger stab into her chest. She'd felt this once before, when she'd seen Akane hugging that Kyohiro guy: bitter, bitter jealousy.  
Suddenly she felt a release, and the wonderful feeling of weightlessness that comes with intuitive insight: she knew how she could make Akane notice her. Jealousy.  
"I think I would've remembered seeing someone like you," Yuki said, in saccharine tones. "You from around here"  
"Ah, no. We don't go here...well, obviously, we got to Koryou,  
and, uh..." the guy just stared at the ground for a few moments.  
Yuki walked closer to him, getting inside his comfort zone. He gulped as he stared at her. This was going to be so easy.

School had been over for two hours, and the wind had gained a chill. Akane found it refreshing.  
"So... I guess this is it," Chie said. Akane imagined she saw tears in her eyes.  
Akane checked her watch and frowned. "Yeah, time to go face the music"  
"Perhaps we'll go to the same college," Michi said.  
Akane smiled, and rubbed Michi's cheek. "Pollyannaish to the very end, ne"  
Akane turned as she heard a familiar voice from a nearby grove of trees. Yuki emerged from the grove, followed by Komatsu and Hatta.  
"Don't worry, silly boy, of course I'll call you," Yuki said. She caught Akane's eye, and pulled a business card out of her breast pocket and handed it to Komatsu. "But you can call me first if you want"  
"Oh! Oh, thank you!" Komatsu said.  
Akane raised both eyebrows in surprise. Some poor girl had finally taken an interest in Komatsu. She felt her heart warm, and she found herself smiling glibly. Although she wouldn't have chosen to inflict Komatsu on anyone, much less Yuki, Akane was glad she'd finally found someone.

End Part 1

- for Yuki's introduction see Volume 13, story 9 of the manga.(v.8, story 4 in the wideband)  
Script available here:  



	2. Chapter 2

!  
Kimagure Orange Road Spring Wonder Chapter 2

The dark blue horizon was rimmed in red as the sun struggled to rise above it. The park's grasses were inching back towards a healthy shade of green; the frozen dew on them sparkled. The air was clean and had a chill that only an athlete could appreciate. Akane filled her lungs with the crisp, clean airs until she felt as if her lungs would explode. She then let it out in exhales which were indiscernible from sighs of contentment. She cycled air rapidly,  
as she jogged down the sidewalks of her hometown. Track season was more than five months in the past, or three into the future; but that isn't why she was running.  
She'd had trouble sleeping, in anticipation of this day that was slowly dawning. There was something special, almost ethereal, about doing something for the first time.  
Today would be her first day at Koryou, the school where her cousin Kyosuke, and the love of her life Madoka, went. She hoped it would be the beginning of a new period in her life. She had been so deep in thought that she'd made the last few turns on auto-pilot, and hadn't realized she was on her own street.  
She skidded to a halt in front of her apartment building and flew up the stairs and into the entryway.  
As she was showering she began to reflect on the gravity of what she was doing. She'd given up her old school for this--a school she'd loved. She could only hope that it would be worth it.  
She slapped both her cheeks to bring herself back to reality. Of course it was worth it. She had to remember why she was doing this.  
Her shower done, she wrapped herself up in a towel and walked back to her bedroom. She threw open her closet, where her new outfit was hanging. It was a nice ensemble: a lace-up top with frilly sleeves. Below it was a khaki miniskirt with a very chic belt with a double-toothed metal buckle.  
She'd bought the new clothes in Shibuya, though she didn't pick them out, oddly enough. When she was waiting at the local station for her train, she'd run into Komatsu. He was taking measurements with a light meter, looking bored and despondent. Akane would too, if she were Komatsu. She didn't think he had a snowball's chance of getting into a good school. She suspected he knew that.  
It was then that Akane realized that Komatsu might have a better idea of what would be considered fashionable that she would. She couldn't believe all the strange conversations she'd overheard Komatsu and Hatta having about women's clothes.  
Komatsu was more than happy to have an excuse to hang around a women's clothing store in Shibuya and came along. Akane went along with it mostly as a joke at first, but his comments had ended up being extremely insightful.  
Akane took the two hangers out of the closet, and looked at the rows of Hoshi uniforms that she hadn't taken down yet. It was a good opportunity for her, since she didn't have the Koryou uniform yet,  
she could wear anything she liked the first few days. Fortunately her mother hadn't made a special trip to get her a new uniform.  
Her parents had been oddly silent about the whole thing. They were uncomfortable about why she was expelled--but they still thought she should've had more tact. But when she seemed so dedicated to making a fresh new start, they became confounded. As such, she hadn't been yelled at at all, and her parents didn't mind the money they spent in Shibuya. (Fortunately her mother didn't know that there were a few shops in Shibuya that sold uniforms.) Or the money she'd spent on the manicure. Though they did ask about the shouts and frequent swearing coming from the bathroom as she brushed all of the gnarls out of her hair. She really regretted wearing a ponytail.  
Akane rushed out the front door, being careful that her parents didn't see her. She would have trouble explaining her attire. As she rushed down the streets, she realized that she was going to be about an hour early to school. This was unfortunate, since Madoka tended to be late far more often than early. She wondered what she would do with the time.

- - -

"Time to get up"  
"Mfff... Go away," Yuki mumbled.  
Sakurai yanked the blanket off of the bed, causing Yuki to shiver.  
"Damn it, mom!" she shouted, finally opening her eyes.  
"I want you at the breakfast table in twenty minutes!" she looked down at her watch and pretended to press a button on the side. "Mark"  
Seventeen minutes later, Yuki staggered to the table.  
Sakurai slid a soup bowl in front of her daughter. Yuki's hands fumbled for the coffee pot and filled her cup.  
"You're rather out of it, I thought you went to bed at 9," Sakurai said.  
"Maybe I slept too long," Yuki mumbled.  
Sakurai went back to her breakfast, trying hard to appear indifferent. Yuki had been moody all weekend, and Sakurai was tired of trying to get her daughter to open up.  
She wondered if it had something to do with a boy. However, Yuki hadn't shown any interest in boys. Whenever Sakurai brought up the subject, Yuki simply rolled her eyes. Of course, that's what Sakurai expected from a teenager.  
She remembered how secretive she'd been at Yuki's age. She wondered about all the things that Yuki had done or been involved with that she would never know about. It made Sakurai worry, considering the things she'd been into at Yuki's age.  
Sakurai found herself not being to understand her daughter. A month into junior high she had joined the track team: it spite of the fact that Yuki hated every sport under the sun.  
She'd started watching baseball games with her father, and had long conversations about batting averages and trades. At the same time, Yuki hadn't painted a brushstoke in over a year. All her acrylics were withered up in their boxes, and there were five canvases in the basement that had never even been touched.  
As Sakurai looked across the breakfast table every morning, she discovered that she recognized her daughter less and less.  
"What're you staring at?" Yuki said with a scowl. A scowl she'd seen far too often these days.  
"Nothing," Sakurai said with a sigh. "You'd better get ready for school."

- - -

"Okay, so these invisible forces: fate and time, disintegrate his body. Next thing he knows, he wakes up on this cliff, feeling disoriented. He jumps to his feet and walks to the edge of the cliff and stares down onto this vast, blasted plain. He sees the eternal war between Demons and Devils. The war that his deeds, which he has only recently been able to remember, have damned him to be part of for all eternity.  
"Looking down at that eternal punishment, we hold on this damned soul, as it sinks in where he is, what's happened; and he feels that complete and total regret. But he gets over it, he runs over to a nearby corpse and picks up its weapon and runs down to join the fight.  
"Because, you see, although he is damned, he isn't running anymore. He's doing the right thing, and there is some solace in that.  
And as he does so, the question that defined the whole thing echoes back to him"  
"All right, all right!" Komatsu said, exasperated. "I've heard enough. Look, it's a nice story and all, but it's not really our bag.  
We're going to go ahead with the 47 Ronin in Space and the Princess of Silence"  
The exchange-student furrowed his brow. After a moment he made a gesture with one hand, said "Screw you guys!", and walked away across the school's courtyard.  
"Impudent punk," Komatsu said. "In a few years, when I'm the leading light of a new generation of Japanese filmmakers, he'll be sorry he was so rude"  
"I did kind of like the bit with the rats, and the brothel"  
Hatta said. "Which reminds me, doesn't 'The 47 Ronin and The Princess of Silence' sound like the title of a porno"  
"That's just a happy coincidence. It's like Naked Lunch, by the time they realize it isn't, we'll already have their money," Komatsu said.  
Hatta stared, slack-jawed, off into the distance.  
"What're you drooling at?" Komatsu asked, then turned around.  
Then he understood. He reached over and closed Hatta's jaw for him.  
"Don't bother, she doesn't like guys"  
"I was always so scared of her that I never noticed... Damn, has Akane ever got a BODY!" Hatta said.  
"Don't bother, it's hopeless. No use burning yourself out for something you can't ever have," Komatsu said.  
"But isn't that what we always do?" Hatta said.  
"Hey! We've been on dates!" Komatsu said, then paused. "And, I have a girlfriend now, you ass"  
"Maybe it's just a phase she's going through," Hatta said. "Maybe she's just toying with the idea of being a lesbian"  
"Did you ever toy with the idea of being gay?" Komatsu asked.  
"No! Who would want to do another guy? Yuck!" Hatta said.  
"Why would it be any different with girls?" Komatsu said.  
"Well... LOOK at them! I mean, damn, how could you not adore that soft skin and all those wonderful curves..." Hatta said, his face flushing. "Besides, since when are you so understanding about these matters"  
"I had a long talk with Akane the other day. She has it bad for someone of the female persuasion. She wouldn't tell me who, though"  
Komatsu said.  
"I wish I knew, then I'd be able to have an accurate fantasy"  
Hatta said with a stupid grin.  
"Dude, I said we're not going to talk about that anymore"  
Komatsu said.

- - -

Kyosuke was defending his choice of corn-cob holders as an anniversary gift for Ayukawa's parents when she went slack-jawed. He quickly turned to follow her gaze, and his jaw assumed a similar posture.  
"What's Akane doing here?" Ayukawa asked.  
"Hooking, if those clothes are any indication," Kyosuke said.  
He felt a sudden surge of pain in his right arm as Ayukawa punched it.  
"I have an outfit like that!" Ayukawa said.  
"Yeah? How come you never wear it around me?" Kyosuke asked.  
He got punched in the left arm for that one.  
"Hey guys!" Akane said as she approached.  
"Hi cuz, what're you doing here?" Kyosuke asked. "Is your school off today; or did you get expelled"  
"Well, as a matter of fact..." Akane said.  
After a few moments of shocked silence, Akane explained the situation to her cousin and Madoka. Naturally leaving out the exact circumstances of why she was in the headmistress's office to begin with.  
"But why are you dressed like that?" Kyosuke asked.  
"Well, I haven't had a chance to get the Kouryou uniform yet,  
so I figured I'd just wear my street clothes," Akane said.  
Kyosuke was about to say something, but Madoka cut him off.  
"They're very becoming on you, Akane. Are they new?" Madoka asked.  
"Yeah, I got them in Shibuya a few...weeks ago," Akane said. Then she blushed. "I haven't had the nerve to wear them outside the house before"  
Madoka smiled tenderly. "Ah, we all need to show off once in a while. Especially with a body like yours"  
Kyosuke started to go a little red, his lips quivered, and Akane could hear the squeaking of his teeth grinding together; but he said nothing.  
"However, I think you should've worn your old uniform," Madoka said. "It wouldn't do to get in trouble on your first day. Especially considering how you ended up here"  
"I..." Akane said.  
"Run home and change," Madoka said. "If you don't get back in time, Kasuga and I'll run interference for you"  
"Well... Uh, okay," Akane said.  
She took to her heels and ran, taking curves at dangerous speeds,  
cutting through people's yards, and jumping over fences as she went.  
She knew she should feel embarrassed: and she did, a little. But the clothes had served their purpose: she'd just been complimented by Madoka! And Madoka was willing to get in trouble to save her reputation.  
With each passing day, Akane felt herself falling more and more in love with Madoka.  
As she barreled down an alley, some salaryman wolf-whislted at her. On impulse, she threw an illusion at him: made him think he was being attacked by a snake. She didn't know what kind of snake, since she wasn't well versed in ophiology, but it looked like a cross between a boa-constrictor and a cobra.  
But then Akane skidded to a halt. Why was she attacking him?  
She dressed like this so she would get this sort of reaction. Why punish him for responding the way she intended?  
The illusion vanished from around the cowering salaryman. Akane resumed running. Well, at least he'd have an interesting story to tell the guys at work.

- - -

When Manami got down to the courtyard picnic table where she often ate her lunch, she found Komatsu sitting against a tree and singing.  
"Oooh-ooh, ooo-ooh, Lloyds of London. Oooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, Lloyds of London," he belted out.  
Manami sat down on the bench nearest him and took out a piece of paper with crudely scrawled hiragana on it and showed it to him.  
"What did you want to see me about"  
Komatsu jumped to his feet and sat on the bench across from her.  
"It's about the movie," Komatsu said.  
"Look, I already told you I'm in. You can stop begging," Manami said.  
"Uh... I'm afraid that's not it. Quite the opposite, in fact"  
Komatsu said.  
Manami turned that around in her head. What would the opposite of "I'm in" be? Everyone but me in the world is out? No...wait, that was the complement. Then she got it.  
"You're... firing me?" Manami said. That didn't sound right, she didn't think Komatsu would ever be in the position to fire anyone.  
"I'd be happy to have you on as an extra, but the thing is that I've found someone else. You would've made a good Princess of Silence,  
Manami, but this girl was born to play it. I mean, why have Patty Duke play Princess Leia when you've got Carrie Fisher, ya know what I'm saying"  
Who the hell was Patty Duke? Manami was about to protest, but Komatsu was already rising.  
"Sorry I have to cut this short, but I'm meeting a friend off-campus for lunch," Komatsu said.  
"You can't leave campus for lunch," Manami said; it was the only clear thought in her head.  
"Then this will have to be our little secret, sweet cheeks. See you in the funny papers," Komatsu climbed the tree and proceeded to jump over the fence; in spite of the fact that the gate was ten feet away, and open. He always had to be so theatrical.  
Manami ate her lunch in silence for several minutes, until Hatta arrived.  
"You look bummed," Hatta said. "I suppose he told you"  
"I don't know if I'm more hurt or confused," Manami said.  
"Yeah, he isn't acting like himself anymore. It's that skirt he's going out with," Hatta said.  
"He's got a girlfriend?!" Manami said, ashamed that she sounded so surprised.  
"That girl is all he can see anymore. You wouldn't believe all the great fight scenes he cut out of the script so his girlfriend could have more lines. Damned studio couch!" Hatta said.  
Manami spit her milk across the table.

- - -

Yuki chewed on her tasteless lunch and gazed over the treetops with an ambivalent mix of apathy and profound longing.  
She wasn't supposed to be on the roof. Since it was against the rules to come up here, it meant she was able to eat her lunch in solitude. Or so she thought.  
Several people ate their lunch in the courtyard twenty feet beneath her dangling feet. Kaori had come out and was calling her name.  
"Yo!" Yuki said.  
It took a few moments for Kaori to figure out where her voice was coming from. She craned her neck to look up at her friend.  
"What are you doing up there?" Kaori asked.  
She hadn't needed to raise her voice. Yuki always wondered why you had to shout to be heard over horizontal distances, but not vertical ones.  
"Eating; and thinking," Yuki said.  
"Coach Watanabe wants to see you," Kaori said.  
Yuki groaned. "I'm eating lunch." She didn't mention that it wasn't giving her much enjoyment, though.  
"She made it sound like it was important," Kaori said.  
Yuki sighed, nodded in assent, and rose to her feet. She crumpled up her lunch bag and threw it into the wastebasket twenty feet below.  
It bounced off the rim and sunk into the liner. The lunch-eating students below started cheering.

As Yuki walked down to Coach Watanabe's office, she wondered what Watanabe could possibly want. She hoped that the coach wasn't going to make a pass at her. Watanabe was a little long in the tooth for her tastes.  
"What up, coach?" Yuki asked as she walked into the office.  
Watanabe looked up from her submarine sandwich. Geez, didn't anyone eat Japanese food for lunch anymore?  
"Ah, Yuki. Please, sit down," she indicated a chair.  
"Something up?" Yuki asked.  
This was the first time she'd talked to her old coach since the end of the track season last September. Yuki hadn't expected to see her for at least another month.  
"I assume you intend to try out for track again this year"  
Watanabe said.  
Yuki almost went with her knee-jerk reaction of 'yes', but then remembered that Akane wouldn't be on her team. In the fall and winter she'd enjoyed not going to practice. She liked having more time to do homework and goof-off.  
"I'm sort of one the fence right now," Yuki said. "Truth be told"  
"It would be a horrible mistake if you didn't come back. You have genuine track abilities," Watanabe said.  
Yuki started to blush, but then gave Watanabe a strange look. How could she have possibly know she was ambivalent about coming back?  
Even Yuki hadn't known until a couple of minutes ago.  
"Coach... Why did you call me down here?" Yuki said.  
"Now that Akane is gone, we need a new team captain. We need a natural athlete that is likable and can lead the other team members.  
At the end of the day, the team captain teaches the team more than even the coach does... It takes an exceptional person to perform that job, Yuki. I believe that person could be you," Watanabe said.  
Yuki almost jumped from her chair. She always thought that was an expression; but the surprise caused jolts to go through the muscles in her legs, and it was hard to keep seated.  
"Coach, I don't think I could even make a passable team captain;  
much less follow an act like Akane," Yuki said. "Besides, I'm just a sophomore. I'm not even an upperclassmen yet"  
"Don't misunderstand me, Yuki. I've had my eye on you since day one. Even if Akane was still here, I still would've seriously considered making you team captain anyway," Watanabe said.  
"Uh huh," Yuki said.  
Watanabe gave her a strange look. Then she rose and walked over to the window, she motioned for Yuki to follow her.  
"Look at them down there, I saw what happened with the trash can. How do you account for a reaction like that?" Watanabe said.  
"It was a lucky shot," Yuki said. "That impressed people"  
"It's so much more than that, Yuki. I don't know why you can't see it, but you've made an impact. You've become popular without even trying. You're a genuine celebrity," Watanabe said.  
Yuki stared down at the crowd of lunch-eaters and let the coach's words sink in. Did the other kids really like her that much? She hadn't noticed.  
"I don't want to be a celebrity," Yuki said. It was true, there was only one thing she wanted: and it seemed forever beyond her reach.  
"I know that you worshipped Akane, Yuki," Watanabe said. "But perhaps it's your time in the spotlight now"  
"You'd be surprised how unmoved I am by all of this," Yuki said.  
"How can you be so pigheaded?" Watanabe shouted. "Can't you think of the team? They need you"  
Ah, the old 'team player' strategy. Yuki walked away from the window, past the chair, and towards the door.  
"I'm sorry, Watanabe-sensei. I honestly am; but this isn't who I am anymore. Give my best to the team," Yuki said.

- - -

It was Akane's first math class at her new school--and she was bored out of her mind. She had been continuously writing and rewriting a note to Madoka in her mind; but that was difficult to do with the teacher yapping on about Jacobians.  
Akane finally decided to make simplicity and forthrightness her watchword. She folded the note up and--when the teacher's attention was elsewhere--flung the note across the aisle.

Kyosuke's field of vision was momentarily interrupted by a white flash. His glance jerked along its trajectory, and he saw a piece of folded paper land squarely in Ayukawa's lap.  
A note? Who would.  
Then Kyosuke remembered who sat across the aisle from Ayukawa now. This couldn't possibly be good.

M-sama,  
Are you working after school today?  
-A-san Madoka tore a sheet of paper out of her notebook and started on a note of her own.

A-san,  
No, I'm not. Did you have something in mind?  
-Madoka Akane couldn't help but stare at the note in admiration for several moments. Madoka had such beautiful penmanship. Akane wondered how adept she would be with an inkstone and brush.

M-sama,  
Would you like to go for coffee after school? I know a good place in Omiya.  
-A-san Akane flipped her pen back-and-forth between her fingers like a see-saw. Omiya was far enough away to make it unlikely they would run into anyone they knew. Well, anyone she knew. Old acquaintances of Madoka showed up in the oddest places. Even in Saitama.  
She also believed she made it clear that it would only be the two of them.  
Somewhat satisfied, she folded up the note and tossed it across the aisle. Less than a minute later, a reply landed on the desk in front of her.  
Love to. )  
-Madoka Akane' heart began to race. Her plan was working. It was actually working!

- - -

A couple of miles south of Koryou High School, past the JR-line tracks, the ground rises twenty feet in less than a foot of space,  
making a large and moss-covered cliff.  
Because of this sudden rising, it was possible to look out the window of a 9th floor apartment and be at eye level with the man working in the garden next door.  
Also on this immense cliff was a small park. Sitting beneath a tree during this lazy afternoon in April were two people who seemed to be very much in love. Which just goes to show how deceptive looks can be.

Yuki moaned as Komatsu rubbed her shoulders. "Mmmm, I have such a wonderful boyfriend"  
"Does he know about me?" Komatsu asked.  
Yuki laughed and let herself fall farther back into Komatsu's arms. He really did seem to have the magic touch.  
"Akane seems to be fitting in, in case you were wondering. Oh!  
Are you okay? You just stiffened up there..." Komatsu said.  
Yuki shrugged it, and Komatsu, off. "It's nothing, my muscles are just a little sore. We were doing gymnastics in gym class today"  
"Oh?" Komatsu said, salivating. "I would've loved to have seen you in one of those tight leotards"  
Yuki felt good in spite of herself. Yes, he was a pig, but it felt good to know SOMEONE appreciated that she was in shape.  
"Do you want to do something this weekend?" Komatsu said.  
"We have finals coming up: don't you?" Yuki said.  
"Yeah, well, I never study for them," Komatsu said.  
"You're that good, huh?" Yuki said.  
"Well... It's more that I don't really care," Komatsu said. His laugh was that of a boy who knew he should be ashamed but wasn't.  
"Sorry, but I have to study. If I don't keep my grades up, they'll kick me off..." Yuki said. "You know, I think that's a good idea. Are there any movies you want to see"  
"Nah, that's so impersonal. I'd rather do something where we could get to know each other better," Komatsu said.  
Yuki felt a pang in her chest. Komatsu would make someone a very good boyfriend, she thought. He was deeper than he appeared at first.  
She couldn't believe that they'd been here for more than an hour and he hadn't brought up his stupid movie or movie-making even once.  
He really was a nice guy, after all. They could be friends; even good friends; but nothing more. She just didn't swing that way.

How lucky I am, thought Komatsu. This had started out as flirting,  
and even for the first couple of dates he hadn't taken this seriously.  
He'd just stick around until he lost his virginity, then he'd be on to someone else.  
Or so he'd thought at first. He was ashamed of his original attitude. This girl was warm, caring, interesting; she was... a person.  
Who would've thought that within that pretty head of hers were thoughts as deep and complex as his own?  
He never would've believed it, but he was falling in love with Yuki. What a lucky man he was.

- - -

Omiya was a good 45-minutes by train. Akane spent most of the time working their coffee-conversation over in her head. The train was too noisy and public to have any meaningful conversation.  
After some light conversation, Madoka blind-sided Akane with a question she'd grown tired of: "Have you thought about what university you're going to apply to"  
"I thought Koryou had an escalator system," Akane said, suddenly realizing that her stall for time had raised a legitimate point.  
"There's no college, though, it stops at high school," Madoka said.  
Stupid Akane, she chastised herself. She'd spent over two weeks going over those stupid pamphlets and handbooks as she went through the lengthy process to get accepted into Madoka's school. She imagined she wouldn't have been allowed entry if it weren't for the ten letters of recommendation from her teachers at Hoshi's.  
"Well, I'm not really sure what I want to be yet," Akane said.  
"What are you thinking"  
"My parents want me to go to school in America," Madoka said.  
Akane felt her body temperature drop ten degrees. Though, oddly,  
her chair felt warmer.  
"Oh," was all she managed.  
"I'd rather stay around here, though," Madoka said.  
"Oh," Akane said cheerfully.  
"So, you have no idea what you want to do when you grow up"  
Madoka said.  
"Does that sound so unusual?" Akane said.  
"I suppose not. It's just strange to me, since I've known since I was a a kid," Madoka said.  
"Really?" Akane said, blinking in surprise. "How did getting into gang fights as a kid fit into you plans as a musician"  
Madoka looked embarrassed, but she also adopted a smile that Akane thought was genuine.  
"Hikaru told you about those, huh?" Madoka said.  
"We talked at lunch," Akane noted.  
"My parents wanted me to be a musician; so naturally I rebelled.  
It didn't matter that I was good at it, and secretly liked it. Just the fact that my parents approved was enough to make me hate it"  
Madoka said.  
"So you finally matured and accepted it," Akane said. Madoka was so cool!  
"Well, no, I took up the saxophone," Madoka said. "My dad blew his top at first. You'd think someone who loved music as much as him would appreciate jazz. Finally he grew to accept it.  
The trick is this: do what you're best at, but do it on your own terms"  
"But don't you still play the piano?" Akane asked.  
Madoka shrugged. "I don't think we can ever completely escape our parent's expectations"  
That statement sounded far more ominous that Akane suspected Madoka intended.

- - - 

Late that Afternoon Akane, jittery on caffeine and high on endorphins, returned home and went up to her room. She hummed a jaunty tune to herself as she dug through the pile of mail on her desk.  
The usual stuff--pamphlets from colleges that wanted her to attend because of her apparent athletic prowess. Among them she found a pamphlet for a charm school. She would've been insulted if she hadn't ordered it.  
She pushed the mound of other pamphlets to the floor with her arm; then sat down to look over her chosen pamphlet.  
She sighed longingly as she looked at the pictures of cute young women in ball gowns, kimonos, and other types of formal wear. It made her feel warm in a very personal place.  
After a few minutes of looking at the pamphlet and dreaming, she let it fall closed and looked out the window at the setting sun. She'd need training in the matters of polite society if she wanted to join Madoka in it. But she couldn't ask her parents to pay for it. There would be too many questions.  
She opened up the pamphlet to the last page and looked at the figures. She could probably pay for the school with a part-time job.  
She smiled as she realized another point of kinship with Madoka. They would be defying school rules together.

- - -

Two weeks passed. Two long, balmy, wonderful spring weeks. Then a gigantic storm struck Tokyo, leaving the Kyosuke's huddled in the basement of Green Castle apartments for the better part of a night.  
The next day the students of Koryou High School found their usual class schedule canceled. This would normally be a cause for celebration-  
but the grueling cognitive labor had been replaced with grueling physical labor. It was their job to clean up the storm's effects on the school grounds.

"Put your backs into it!" Komatsu shouted.  
"How the hell are we supposed to do that when we're picking up leaves?" Hatta asked.  
"Dunno. I just know that what's you're supposed to say when people are slacking off," Hatta said.  
"Maybe we'd be more apt to work if our fearless leader was actually helping," Hatta said, holding the trash-stick up threateningly.  
"I'm an overseer, that means my job is to see. Now how can I see over you guys when I'm down there in the muck with you?" Komatsu said.  
It wasn't just a clever phrase: this area of the yard was covered with mud. Komatsu suspected that's why the headmaster had assigned his group there.  
Komatsu suddenly stiffened his pose. "Look alive and decent chaps,  
a member of the fairer sex is approaching!"

Komatsu was the only member of his crew that wasn't completely covered in mud. He was also the only one wearing the plastic apron that the teachers had handed out that morning.  
"Hello Manami, beautiful day, isn't it?" Komatsu said.  
It wasn't. The sky was covered with grey clouds, and an unpleasant chill was in the air; reminding them that winter wasn't going to be forgotten so easily.  
"How's it going over here?" Manami asked.  
"Oh, I'd say we're almost done," Komatsu said.  
Hatta mimed stabbing Komatsu in the back with his trash picker.  
Manami almost smiled.  
"Listen, can you ditch these guys for a minute, I want to talk to you," Manami said.  
"Oooh, Manami's suddenly become a bad girl?" Hatta said. "Hatta like"  
Komatsu ignored him and walked off with Manami.  
They walked up the hill and into the small valley between the line of trees and the stone wall. Manami wondered how many times Komatsu had dreamed of her--or any girl--taking him here; and then doing all kinds of things that would probably hurt on a ground covered with pine needles.  
Manami wondered how she'd start; she'd never had a conversation like this before. It certainly didn't help that there relationship had never been clearly defined to begin with-  
"Look Manami, if this is about the Princess of Silence. I'm sorry I took you out of the loop on that one. But it isn't really tenable to change things at this point. Yuki has really put her heart into the role. You can still be an extra, though," Komatsu said.  
"This isn't about your stupid movie!" Manami said, feeling her face grow hot and her throat grow raw.  
Manami realized something was truly wrong when Komatsu didn't even notice her outburst. He was looking into the distance with a dopey look on his face.  
"She's so wonderful, you know, she can feel everything so deeply.  
I'm so lucky I found her..." Komatsu said.  
Manami just stared at him, dumbfounded. So this is what love is.  
She felt her stomach churn as she realized that Komatsu had never been that way around her.  
"Why should you never wave to Hatta while he's raking leaves"  
"I dunno, why"  
"Because he'll fall out of the tree"  
Laughter. Akane tied up the trashbag and threw it onto a pile of the same. Over the past four hours they'd de-twigged and de-weeded the school's entire front lawn, and helped moved a fallen tree onto a dump-truck; but Akane wasn't tired at all. She felt that she could do this forever.  
Higuchi-sensei came by with a clipboard. She gawked at the large pile of garbage bags that the two of them had amassed.  
"What next?" Akane asked.  
"Ah, Akane-san, Madoka-san... I think you've done enough," she said, bemused. "Why don't you just relax until the headmaster calls everyone in"  
Higuchi-sensei walked off, occasionally turning her head to give them a bewildered look.  
"Well, what do we do now?" Madoka asked.  
Akane motioned to the large grassy hill that overlooked the athletic fields. "You wanna cloud watch"  
"Geez, I haven't done that since I was about nine or so," Madoka said.  
"Then you're vastly overdue," Akane said. "Come on," she said,  
grabbing Madoka's hand.

"I just don't understand boys," Manami moaned.  
"Not much to understand," Kurumi said. She was fighting to bring a human-powered mower out of the shed. It's been made her task after smarting off to Aoki-sensei. But the last laugh would be on Aoki sensei when Kurumi turned it into a psi-powered mower.  
Kurumi finally managed to get it through the door, but it took a plank-worth of door along as it did so.  
"But Komatsu's been after me since the day we met; why's he suddenly going after that Hoshi school tart?" Manami asked.  
Kurumi raised one-eyebrow as she looked at her twin sister.  
Manami usually never insulted anyone; she must've been really hurt.  
She chose her next words carefully.  
"Well, it's pretty hard to ignore someone who's throwing themselves at you," Kurumi said. "That Yuki girl is putting it on pretty darn thick. I think she wants to ride the baloney pony, if you know what I'm saying"  
Manami blushed; obviously she did. Then something flashed across Kurumi's mind.  
"Maybe Komatsu never thought of you in that way before," Kurumi said.  
"Oh come on," Manami said. "I know I'm not much to look at, but this is Komatsu we're talking about"  
"Well, a lot of people see you as the mommy type; and that's not really sexy," Kurumi said.  
"I take the irony of that statement is lost on you?" Manami said.  
Kurumi brushed it off with a flippant toss of her hand. "Doesn't matter, it's still true"  
"Well, I guess..." Manami said. "But what can I do about it"  
"Let your wild side out," Kurumi said. "It'll be good for you.  
If you keep all that inside, you're eventually going to explode"  
"I tried letting it out... once. It didn't go all that well"  
Manami said.  
"Maybe you should try something a little more personal first"  
Kurumi said.  
"What are you talking about?" Manami said.  
"Well... You know, 'get to know yourself'," Kurumi said.  
"Like, what, psychotherapy?" Manami asked.  
Kurumi shook her head furiously. How could her sister be so dense sometimes? "No, you lay down and you...," Kurumi gritted her teeth. "Fingerpaint"  
"Wouldn't you get paint all over if you laid down while doing that?" Manami asked innocently.  
"NO! You... give yourself the finger; tickle the taco; slap the south mouth..." Kurumi said.  
Manami slowly seemed to be getting it. "You mean"  
"Yes," Kurumi shouted. "YOU MASTURBATE"  
Her voice echoed near and far; and Kurumi thought Manami had been blushing before. She was surprised when her sister spoke.  
"How exactly does one... get to know oneself?" Manami asked.  
Kurumi shook her head and walked off. "I'm not going to tell ya. The real joy comes from figuring that out on your own. Good luck."

- - -

"Hmmm, I don't think so, do you have this in a Yaoi?" the pimple-faced girl asked.  
"For god's sake, can't you little girls ever read a manga that doesn't have two guys humping somewhere in it?!" Akane said.  
"What're you, some sort of bigot?" the girl said, stiffening.  
Akane snorted and turned back towards the shelves. The covers were a sea of pink and red; Akane scanned the covers.  
"I'm sorry, I think that's all there is. I don't think there's a Yaoi version of Buddha's story," Akane said.  
"Drat," the girl said.  
"What did you want one for, anyway?" Akane asked.  
"My mom thinks the manga I'm reading are rotting my mind. She says I can't read anything now that doesn't have some historical or Buddhist junk in it," the girl said.  
Poor girl, Akane thought. Her parents had been like that too.  
She'd had to buy her Yuri manga in secret and hide them under her futon. Then something occurred to her; she walked along the aisle and finally picked something off the shelf.  
"You ever read this?" Akane asked.  
"Hinotori? No; doesn't look like something I'd like," the girl said.  
"It's a little more subtle than most, but this one's got a lot of homoerotic overtones in it. There's this one part where a guy puts another guy's engorged nose in my mouth. Allegedly to bring down the swelling; of course, we know how that works," Akane said, bouncing her eyebrows.  
The girl took it, looked at it dubiously for a moment, then nodded. Akane rung her up and she left with a smile. Another satisfied customer, Akane thought to herself, feeling an odd warmth inside her chest. She couldn't imagine any worse fate than working in a manga store for the rest of her life; but it did have its good points.  
She checked her watch and felt giddy. It was almost time. She untied her apron and popped her head into the backroom.  
"Hey manager, I'm taking off," Akane said.  
The manager didn't look up from the stack of books he was sorting.  
"Can't you wait until Kaori gets here"  
"I don't want to be late. First day and all," Akane said.  
Manager said. "All right, then. Hopefully Charm School will make you more pleasant to work with"  
Akane smirked. "Don't count on it. Besides, if you didn't like my style, you would've canned me the first day"  
"The kids do seem to like your attitude. Take care," Manager said, finally looking up and giving her a smile.  
"Thanks, you too."

- - -

They were assembled in the front hall. The hard teak floor made Akane's sock-clad feet hurt. However, she was so nervous that she hardly noticed.  
Occasionally she caught the glance of another girl in line; they all looked as nervous as she felt. In a situation like this, Akane would usually crack a joke to break the tension. However, a sign on the opposite wall said, in beautiful calligraphy: "Speak Only When Spoken To". Akane decided it was too early to be breaking school rules; even if she didn't like a piece of paper telling her what to do.  
A door at the far end of the hallway creaked over. Thirty heads turned to see who came through it. It was a woman, probably in her fifties. She had grey hair tied in a tight bun with jade chopsticks sticking out of it. She wore a heavy light-blue kimono and carried a polished teak walking stick.  
Silently, she walked to the exact center of the line and turned to face the new students. She took a long moment to stare each of them in the eye. When she came to Akane, Akane rapidly dropped her eyes to the floor. She chided herself; but on recollection she realized that it was the right thing to do.  
After making her small survey of the new girls, she returned to her original position, gave one last long, hard stare. Then she banged her walking stick on the floor. The sound of teak on teak sounded like a gunshot and Akane felt the girls on either side of her jump. She sub-vocalized something herself; though she wasn't sure what it was.  
"Follow," the teacher said.  
She whirled around and walked through a door on the wall they were facing. Akane and the rest followed, their orderly arrangement quickly falling apart.  
Akane found herself in a locker room. Unlike locker rooms at school, it wasn't damp nor did it smell of armpit. It smelled like wood polish and incense. On each locker was a label with a name in gorgeous calligraphy on it. Akane would later learn that the labels had been created by the previous class, as their last assignment in calligraphy.  
Akane found hers and stood before it. She heard the clack of the walking stick and turned to face the teacher.  
"After you change, meet me across the hall. Be prompt," she said.  
She then turned and left. The clacking sound of her stick slowly faded.  
Akane pulled open the locker (there was no lock). Inside was a white kimono. A TRUE kimono, the old type that she'd only seen in movies. The kind she saw Empress Kojun wear on TV.  
She quickly got out of her street clothes and pulled on the heavy kimono; she needed help from the girl next to her, and Akane returned the favor in kind. The kimono fit perfectly; which surprised Akane, even though it shouldn't. She had provided her measurements on the application form, after all.  
As she went to put her clothes into the locker she saw a silk ribbon neatly folded on the bottom. She looked at it, stupefied, for a moment. Had there been some part of the kimono she'd forgotten to tie?  
She looked around and saw a girl with long hair tying the ribbon into it. Akane quickly picked it up and did the same.  
Next to the door leading out was a full-length mirror. Each girl checked herself out in it before she went through. When Akane got there, she looked on in slack-jaw amazement. She hardly recognized herself. She looked so... eloquent.  
"God," she mumbled. "I don't look like such a punk anymore"  
The girl behind herself started laughing. Akane turned to give her an angry look, but then she saw the girl's smiling face.  
"It's weird, isn't it?" the girl said. "I didn't think I'd ever look like a real woman either"  
Akane returned the smile, somewhat relieved. She hadn't wanted to make an enemy here; at least, not on her first day.  
"I'm Akiko, by the way," the girl said with a slight bow.  
"Akane," Akane said, with the same bow. "It's a pleasure"  
They walked across the hall together and into what Akane would later term the classroom. It didn't look like any classroom she'd ever known.  
There were no chairs, for one thing. There were small desks on the ground with cushions set in front of them. There was a large cushion at the front of the room; on which the teacher was sitting.  
She was sipping from a tea mug.  
Akane and Akiko took one of the desks near the back. It was an old habit to take one near the back; that way the teacher couldn't hear them when they chattered. Akane made a mental note to sit closer to the teacher next time. She actually wanted to learn THIS material.  
"Welcome," the teacher said. Even though her voice was strict,  
Akane noted some warmth behind it this time.  
"Do any of you know why you are here?" the teacher said.  
A few raised their hands. Akane sat perfectly still.  
"I suspect a depressingly large number of you are here because you parents forced you to come here. For that I apologize. However,  
you are here; you might as well learn something. Though, be warned: I will suffer no obstructions. Don't make yourself, and your classmates,  
suffer; we did nothing wrong, and your hostility is not warranted and will not be tolerated," she gave the entire class a mighty glare.  
"Some are here because they believe that what I can teach will get them ahead in life, or achieve some goal that has alluded them.  
I will try not to disappoint; but you are short-changing yourself.  
What I will teach is not simply a means to an end, but an end in itself. I just hope you realize that someday.  
"I cannot know for sure why you took this class: but I will tell you why I am teaching it. I believe that if we turn our back on our past that we lose a vital part of ourselves. I believe in no dogmas;  
even and especially those that say that everything that is new is absolutely good. It's inverse is also not true: not everything that is old is bad.  
"It would do to remember that the physical laws that brought forth this industrial revolution were discovered over 300 years ago"  
the teacher said.  
"I also don't believe in the superiority of the Japanese culture.  
Which I'm sure will surprise you," the teacher said.  
Right on, Akane thought.  
"The purpose of these classes is to become citizens of the world.  
You will learn French and English while you are here. These are the two most important languages in the international world. You will also learn the customs of many different countries. When you are finished,  
your specialty will be etiquette and protocol"  
"Like C-3PO?" someone blurted out. It took a moment for Akane to recognize it as her own voice.  
The room was filled with laughter; and the teacher turned an ice cold glare towards her.  
Aw, crumbs.

Akane sat against the wall and let out a long sigh. Way to go,  
she thought. She hadn't even made it an hour without screwing up.  
She can't believe she'd said that. She didn't even like those movies. Well, except for the third one. She loved the way Leia looked in that metal bikini; she saw that movie five times when it was at the theater.  
She heard the door squeak open; she hopped to her feet. The girls shuffled out, most of them avoiding eye contact. Akiko was one of the last out; she walked over to Akane.  
"She wants to see you," Akiko said.  
"Did she seem angry?" Akane asked.  
"Can't really tell," Akiko said.  
"What's her name, by the way?" Akane said.  
"Shimizu-san"  
"Shimizu-sama"  
The teacher looked up from her book, and gave Akane a disapproving glance.  
"Akane-chan, please sit," Shimizu-sensei said.  
Akane sat down on the nearest cushion. To say that she was nervous would be an understatement.  
"I'm sorry about-" Akane started.  
Shimizu-sensei shook her head in disappointment. "Speaking out of turn is always inappropriate; even when apologizing"  
Akane hunched her shoulders and sighed.  
"I took a look at the money-order you paid with," Shimizu-sensei said. "I noticed it had your own signature on it. Not that of one of your parents. I'm curious about that"  
Akane waited a moment, Shimizu nodded her head for her to speak.  
"I couldn't ask my parents to pay for this. It's not their fault I have no manners," Akane said.  
"Is it only manners you seek?" Shimizu-sensei said.  
"I want to be a better person, frankly," Akane said. "I've heard there's more to life than dating, parties, and soccer games. I'd like to know if that's true"  
"I believe you were apologizing for something when you came in here, Akane-chan," Shimizu-sensei said.  
Was she even listening? "Yes, that's true," Akane said. "I'm sorry about speaking out in class. It was intended as a joke; I'm sorry I disrupted the class.  
I just couldn't control myself"  
Shimizu-san nodded. "We come here to become civilized. It is the purpose of this class to teach us to act against our instincts"  
Akane felt something odd stir in her; she imagined she smelt a whiff of lavender in the air.  
"I hope you will do well in the future to repress these impulses,  
Akane-chan. I look forward to seeing how you progress. You are dismissed."

- - -

Yuki couldn't believe what she'd seen. It couldn't possibly be true. Akane, her strong healthy Akane, going into a charm school?  
She walked home, slouched in misery. Akane hadn't been gone even a month yet, and she'd changed so much. It's amazing what you missed when you didn't see someone on schooldays.  
She got home and threw her bag onto the kitchen table in a surly manner. Her mother was cutting carrots and watching one of those stupid game shows on a portable TV.  
"Hey honey, how was school?" Mom asked.  
"It was almost adequate," Yuki said.  
"Well, if school wasn't trying, people would never want to graduate out of it," Mom said.  
Ah, more homespun wisdom. Days like these, she just couldn't get enough of it.  
"Mom," Yuki started. Best just to say it. "Can I go to charm school"  
Her mom gave a hearty laugh. Then she saw her daughter's eyes.  
"Oh, you're serious," she said, starting to blush.  
"What's so funny about that?" Yuki fumed.  
"It's just, dear, you really don't seem the type," Mom said.  
"Isn't that why people go to charm school?" Yuki said.  
"Don't you want to do something with your life, Yuki? Why would you want to settle for just having a rich husband?" Mom said.  
"That's the farthest thing from my mind. You can trust me on that." Yuki said.  
"The answer's no, Yuki," Mom said.  
"All right then, I'll ask dad," Yuki said.  
"Go ahead. He needs a good laugh."

Yuki looked at the bookshelf and let out a sigh. It was impossible to get cultured in this house. Her parents owned nothing but spy and mystery novels. There weren't even trashy romance novels with inaccurate historical settings.  
She sat down in her father's leather armchair and sighed. What was culture anyway? So many people kept gushing on about the rich Japanese culture. Was it really anything more than dressing up in Kimonos in August and launching little boats in the river?  
What made something cultural? She supposed culture would be the good aspects of one's society. For instance, the desire to conquer Asia would not be a part of Japanese culture. Well, at least not anymore.  
And that was just the problem. Who decided what was worthy of cultural preservation? Was The Tale of Heike (gods, she hated that book) really more culturally significant than Urusei Yatsura?  
All right, now that she'd abolished all preset standards, she could decide on her own standards. For instance, anything with blue catlike robots in it was bad. Everything that could be played with a joystick was good. Except for centipede; that game really pissed her off. Wait, that was played with one of those rolly-things... what did her geek cousin it? Yeah, a trackball. Trackballs aren't good.  
well, except when you use them to move those three little shields around on the Macross.  
Yuki shook her head, as if to unclutter her thoughts. She was getting off the point. Culture was all around her. Therefore if she wanted to become cultured, she simply had to observe. She could read the trashy spy and suspense novels... or she could watch television.  
Yes! That was it. She checked her watch; yes, a Jidaigeki program usually started around this time of day. Her father liked those, but she didn't. She really wasn't interested in Japanese historical dramas.  
Ah, stories set in old Japan. That could be... cultural; to the others. Okay, maybe she could give a shot. Perhaps she'd learn something.  
She walked over and flicked on the TV then flopped back down on her father's armchair. She gave the show ten minutes. The acting was on par with a sentai show. She'd gotten accustomed to it when the samurai and his captive (a woman, who Yuki was sure would fall in love with him by the end of the hour) went to meet the Samurai's shogun. In one of the long shots during their conversation, Yuki saw that the shogun was wearing a digital watch.  
It was a whole five minutes before she managed to quiet her spasms of laughter.

- - - 

Yuki found herself wandering the halls of Hoshi's All-Girl School long after everyone had gone home. These halls, so often echoing with the sounds of myriad footsteps and voices, were unearthly silent at this hour. The only thing Yuki heard were her soft footsteps and the blood rushing in her eyes. Naturally she felt on edge.  
She found an open window in the middle of the floor. She stood there, chin resting on fist, for a immeasurably long time. She breathed in deeply; she loved the smell of freshly mown grass.  
As she stared out into the utter blue sky, she felt as if she were in a dream. She'd experienced this before, maybe half-a-dozen times before. It was like she existed in an eternal moment, outside of time. She was able to look back at everything she had done,  
everything she had been, and somehow it made sense to her. Everything locked into place, and she had an odd, hazy confidence that her life was going in the right direction.  
Yuki was so deep in this haze, that she didn't notice the music until after she'd been listening to it for a minute. She probably wouldn't have noticed the music if wasn't so obviously being played by an amateur.  
Yuki didn't bother to follow the music, because she knew there was only one place it could be coming from. When she reached the music room, she was stunned to see Akane sitting at the piano. Perhaps, she thought, this a dream after all.  
No, it couldn't be. Akane was wearing a school uniform that she didn't recognize. In her dreams, Akane always still went to Hoshi's.  
"S...Sempai?" Yuki said uncertainly.  
Akane stopped and turned around on the bench. From her confused glance, Yuki suspected it took Akane a minute to remember who she was.  
"Yuki? What are you doing here? Everyone else has gone home"  
Akane said.  
"I was taking a test. I was sick last week and had to make it up"  
Yuki said. "Can I take it the headmistress relented? Are you back with us?" Yuki asked.  
She didn't know why she bothered; somehow, deep down, she knew Akane wasn't supposed to be here.  
"No, I, just..." Akane blushed.  
Yuki looked past her and saw a first-timers piano book on the stand above the keyboard. It even had Hello Kitty in the page corners holding up a sign with the page number.  
Akane slammed her palms down on the keyboard, the discordant notes finally shook Yuki out of her haze. She went over and sat down on the bench next to Akane. She tingled being so close to Akane;  
especially since she hadn't seen her, outside of her dreams and a couple of times on the street, for almost a month.  
"I... I don't know why I bothered," Akane said, embarrassed.  
It was the first time Yuki had ever seen her embarrassed. It didn't even occur to her that Akane COULD be embarrassed.  
"I guess I'm just not musical," Akane said.  
"Oh come on, we're all musical," Yuki said.  
"I just don't have the talent," Akane said.  
"Music doesn't come from the mind, Akane, it comes from the soul.  
You're telling me that someone with a beautiful soul like yours can't create beautiful music?" Yuki asked.  
"What makes you think I have a beautiful soul?" Akane asked.  
Yuki felt sweat pooling up in her armpits. This was it, this was the moment. She'd tell Akane how she felt about her. Certainly Akane couldn't refuse such a heartfelt confession-  
"How's Komatsu, by the way?" Akane asked.  
Yuki felt like she'd been stabbed through the heart. There was a gleam in Akane's eyes that she did not at all like. Perhaps Yuki was wrong about her having a beautiful soul.  
"Uh... Why do you ask?" Yuki said.  
"He's always babbling on about you two. He makes it sound like you have one of the all-time great romances," Akane said with a smile.  
There was no malice in the smile, Yuki noted. Was Akane... Wait,  
Akane thought that she was straight, that she was in love with Komatsu.  
So Akane meets with this girl that used to have a crush on her, after she's "recovered". They meet in the music room on this beautiful spring afternoon, one false word and they end up on the floor, with their hands all over each other. Suddenly Akane is the other woman.  
Yuki felt warmness rush into her chest; Akane had been trying to keep her honest--keep her from doing something she considered a mistake. She did have a beautiful soul; the most beautiful Yuki had ever seen.  
"I... I don't know how it's going to end up," Yuki said.  
"Remember, patience and understanding are the keystones of any good relationship. And communication; patience, understanding and communication. Oh! And affection, we can't forget..." Akane trailed off, her face in a strange frown.  
After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, Yuki pulled a kazoo out of her bag. "As I was saying, the hardest part is to find the right instrument"  
She played the Galaxy Express 999 theme on her kazoo. Akane's expression changed, but remained equally puzzled.

- - -

At approximately six minutes before five, Manami came in to get her porn. Akane ducked under the counter to retrieve the brown-paper wrapped parcel.  
"That's a pretty eclectic collection," Akane said. "Conventional,  
yaoi AND yuri. Is there something you want to tell me"  
Manami scowled. "I'm trying to figure out something, and Kurumi refused to help"  
Akane stared at her cousin for several moments in silence. A quarter of her wanted to know what Manami was talking about; the other three-quarters were convinced she would never sleep well again if she did.  
"Look, if your dad or teacher's discover you have those, don't tell them where you got. Not only will I lose this job, but my parents and the school will know I was working," Akane said.  
"Don't worry, my lips are sealed," Manami said. She then blushed a deep violet.  
As Akane walked to charm school, she felt the urge to whistle.  
The crushing depression was gone. The worst part of it had been how helpless she'd felt. Once she realized that she wasn't helpless, that all that she needed to get anything, ANYTHING was to keep plugging away until she succeeded.  
Akane realized, now, that nothing was beyond her reach.  
That's when she tripped down the train platform's stairs.

After class broke up Akane went up to Shimizu-sensei. (she stopped calling her sama after Shimizu informed her that it made her sound like a smart-ass)  
"Sensei, I was wondering if I could have a word," Akane said.  
"You may have several, Akane-chan," sensei said.  
Now who was the smart-ass?  
"I had a question about etiquette. We haven't gotten around to it yet, but I was wondering... How does a lady go about asking someone out on a date?" Akane said.  
Sensei tutted. "You should know by now, Akane-chan, that a lady does not ask, she waits to be asked"  
Akane let out a long sigh. "Swell."

"Ah good afternoon Yuki," the vendor said. "What can I get you today"  
"Hmmm," Yuki said, looking over the selection. "Some cake, perhaps"  
"Oooh," the vendor said, miming pain. "Broken heart"  
"With perception like that, you should be a psychiatrist," Yuki said with a smile.  
"I got a nice white cake with lemon frosting. It's a bit summery for this early in the season, but you're probably getting sick of those earthy chocolate cakes," the vendor said.  
"I'll take a coupla slices of that," Yuki said.  
While the vendor was wrapping up the cake, Yuki looked out the window. She saw Akane coming down the street.  
Yuki unbuttoned the first two buttons of her blouse. The vendor gave her an odd look.  
"I'll be right back," Yuki said. The bell tinkled as she ran out the door.  
Yuki started to walk nonchalantly down the sidewalk towards Akane.  
When she got to about half the distance, she noticed that Akane's hair had a white silk ribbon tied in it. Yuki felt herself flush, it made Akane look so sophisticated and cool.  
"Hey sempai," Yuki called out.  
Akane noticed her for the first time. Yuki was happy to see that Akane recognized her right away this time.  
"Oh, Yuki, hi," Akane said, a little nervously. "Uh, what're you doing in this part of town"  
"I was visiting my grandma," Yuki said. That's what she'd been doing when she saw Akane go into charm school a couple of weeks ago.  
"Oh," Akane said, still nervous.  
What could she possible be so nervous about, Yuki asked? Was this nervousness around something you had a crush on? Yuki felt a spike of elation, which quickly ebbed. Akane was probably worried about Yuki seeing her going into her charm school. It might ruin her reputation;  
of course, why did she care what the Hoshi girls thought about her now?  
"Oh, hey, you might catch cold," Akane said. She reached forward and buttoned up Yuki's blouse. "You'd better be careful about that,  
there are some dirty old men around here"  
Yuki felt all gooey inside. The touching, the tenderness, how she'd dream of that... But she also felt a little disappointed; it wasn't the reaction she'd been looking for.

"You know, one of these days I'm going to ask where you go every afternoon," Kazuya said.  
Akane stuck her tongue out at him and threw her bookbag on the kitchen table.  
"If you really want to know, why don't you just read my mind"  
Akane said.  
"One day I'm going to get past that mental block of yours," Kazuya said and walked into the living room.  
Akane noticed that there was a note scrawled on the notepad next to the telephone.

Madoka-chan called, 3:32.

Akane scowled; he had the nerve to call her that. Madoka gave him all that attention and treated him so nice, just because he was a little boy. Let's see how much she liked him when he was a shiftless teenager.  
Akane punched in Madoka's number, which she'd known by heart long before she called it on a routine basis.  
After a couple of rings, the angelic voice of Madoka said "Hello"  
"Ah, Madoka, I just got your message. What's up?" Akane asked.  
"Oh, I was wondering if you were free Friday night?" Akane said.  
"I'm free after five, why do you ask?" Akane asked.  
"I was wondering if you wanted to go out to a movie," Ayukawa said.  
Akane jittered so much that she almost dropped the phone. "Just the two of us?" Akane asked.  
"Well we can invite the rest of the gang along, if you like, but I like it when it's just the two of us sometimes," Madoka said.  
"Oh, sure, yeah, that's great...er, fine. What time, then"  
Akane said.  
"Why don't you come here around 6. The movie theatre I want to visit is closer to my house than yours," Madoka said.  
"Swell," Akane said, and proceeded to feel all gooey inside.

- - -

Late Friday afternoon. The man in the crab-suit was reading.  
Komatsu flipped through the pages on his clipboard and paced nervously.  
"We should've started with something smaller, I just know it"  
Komatsu said. "What was I thinking, shooting the battle between the ronin and the Giant Crab of Ondos first"  
Hatta flipped the page with his giant claw. Komatsu noted that he had remarkable dexterity with it. "Calm down. We always do the big stuff first, then we can relax and film all the easy scenes"  
"Yeah, but forty-seven samurai fighting a big crab?" Komatsu said.  
"Yeah, but we're going to do it five at a time. It's just like Star Wars; you have this giant intergalactic war"  
"Intra-galactic," Komatsu noted.  
"What?" Hatta said, confused.  
"Intergalactic suggests that the war spanned more than one galaxy. There was only in one galaxy in the movies," Komatsu said.  
"Yeah, but they were outside the galaxy at the end of the second movie," Hatta said.  
"That's still a far way from being in another galaxy. And they could've been in one of the spiral arms. You know that we can see most of our own galaxy in the sky," Komatsu said.  
"We're getting off the point. So there's this big... galactic war, yeah? But we never see more than ten stormtroopers on screen at any given time, right?" Hatta said.  
"Yeah, but Lucas never had them fighting a big crab," Komatsu said.  
"Don't be so sure, he's still got six movies to go," Hatta said.  
"Seiji?" a perky voice said.  
Komatsu looked over, and a lot of her nervousness faded away.  
There's something about a beautiful woman, especially one in a white robe wearing a tiara, that made him feel at peace.  
"Wow Yuki, you look gorgeous!" Komatsu said.  
The flush in Yuki's cheeks stood out against the white of her robe.  
"Hmmph," Hatta said. "A robe and a tiara doesn't a princess make.  
She's still a peasant"  
Yuki just smiled. "Interesting book, Hatta"  
Hatta grunted.  
"How much of it have you got colored in?" Yuki asked, ratcheting the smile up a notch.  
Hatta mumbled something. Komatsu was pretty sure he heard the word "whore".

- - -

Akane danced around her room, not caring how foolish she must look. She'd sing, if she knew of some song that was as blissful as she felt.  
As she danced around, she pulled off her clothes and threw them all around. It was a vivacious, disorganized strip-tease. She considered humping the bedpost to complete the effect.  
She danced over to her closet and looked at the array of clothes hanging there. Everything seemed just so...ordinary. Nothing befitted such an important occasion in her life. The only thing that seemed appropriate was her charm school kimono, and that would look odd.  
Then she noticed the outfit she'd worn on the first day of school,  
the one Madoka had admired. The one that her parents didn't know about,  
and wouldn't let her leave the house in.  
She'd have to sneak out the back way.

- - -

"All right, places everyone. Let's make this one count," Komatsu said. One of the Hoshi girls held the clapper up in front of the camera and clapped it.  
"Action"  
Komatsu slowly panned the camera across the field. The dark clouds on the horizon made the shot perfect. Even if there was a screw-up, he was going to cut this pan in somehow.  
Komatsu made a chopping motion with his right-hand, not taking his eye out of the view finder. The Hoshi girls in Samurai armor started shouting and ran across the field, against the pan of the camera.  
"All right, cut, that was perfect!" Komatsu said. "Change helmets, and get ready to run in the other direction"  
"Where did you guys get all this samurai stuff anyway?" the girl with the clapper asked. Komatsu remembered Yuki calling her Kaori.  
"Hatta's family were samurai before the Meiji restoration," Komatsu said.  
"And his parents are okay with this?" Kaori asked.  
"This will be our little secret," Komatsu said. "Hatta, get ready to menace the princess"  
"With pleasure," Hatta said, saluting with his right claw.  
Hatta and Yuki took their position, as did the Hoshi girls, with their helmets swapped.  
"All right guys, this is the money shot, let's make this one count," Komatsu said. He needed a new catchphrase. "Er, let's make history"  
Kaori held the clapper in front of the camera. Komatsu noticed that she'd written "money shot" instead of the correct scene number.  
"Action"  
Hatta clawed at Yuki, who let out a scream. Slow pan over to reveal the five ronin running at her, screaming ad-libbed battle slogans. They proceeded to beat on the crab with their plastic swords.  
Komatsu again noticed how cool the dark clouds in the sky made the scene look.  
"There's something oddly familiar about this," Kaori whispered to Komatsu.

- - -

The movie had been boring. Akane had wanted to enjoy every moment of this "date", but she just couldn't take this much syrupy melodrama. Twenty minutes in, she felt herself drifting off. By the half-hour mark, she was completely asleep.  
When she woke up later, the movie was still going on. The back of her blouse was drenched in sweat, but she felt remarkable refreshed.  
She worried what Madoka wouldn't be pleased with her falling asleep.  
She turned to see that Madoka was fast asleep in the seat next to her. Her face was so peaceful when she was sleeping. It looked exactly as she'd always imagined it.  
Akane felt a surge of bliss. She'd gotten what she wanted, if only for this moment. She and Madoka had slept next to each other.  
In a short while, Madoka would awake, and that peaceful expression would disappear. But just for this moment, Akane would stand guard while her love slept.

- - -

Around eleven, after the rest of the family had gone to bed,  
Manami sat in the living room, nervous. She'd been working on a jigsaw puzzle all night, but hadn't manage to get more a dozen pieces together.  
This was the time she'd been waiting for. This is the time that she'd finally do it. Or do herself, rather. She couldn't imagine the panic attack she'd have when this involved another person.  
She turned out the light and walked up the stairs to her room.  
The window was open and the shades were open. She wondered if she should close the window: she didn't know how loud the noises she might make could be. But the breeze was soothing, especially to someone as flushed and sweaty as she was.  
She drew the shades and locked the door. She turned down her bed and pulled off her clothes. She considered putting her pajamas on; and decided that if she was too shy to sleep in the nude then maybe she shouldn't be doing this.  
She slid under the covers, took off her glasses and turned off the light. She lay on her back, staring at the ceiling. She could hear her heart beating, it drowned out the blood rushing in her ears.  
Maybe she could just go to sleep, and forget all about this.  
Part of her wanted to do that; but another part wanted to follow through. She didn't want to fear this anymore, this was part of her;  
it was part of what made her human. This was something, unlike the Power, that she shared with everyone else on Earth. It was something that made her feel like she belonged.  
She thought about what she had to do... The manga hadn't been much help at all. They gave a vague description of what to do, but left out all the details.  
Manami let out a sigh. The first cavewoman who discovered this didn't need a manual to tell her what to do. You knew you were doing it "right" if it felt good.  
Manami reached down and touched herself. It took a while before she felt something other than self-consciousness.  
She'd hated Kurumi for not being more forthcoming; but she'd been right. The best part was figuring these things out for herself.  
That night, Manami felt things she'd never felt before. She'd felt small stirrings before, but this was opening the floodgates.  
It felt so good, but in a strange sticky way. She felt herself losing control, but she liked it. It was like being on a roller-coaster.  
When it was over, she lost control of her muscles and assumed a position she'd often seen in the manga, her legs bent, back arched,  
a moan escaping her mouth.  
It was amazing how calm and relaxed she felt. She couldn't remember feeling like this since... She couldn't remember ever feeling this peaceful or right, even as she drifted off to sleep each night.  
She slid into slumber, more content than she had ever felt before.

As the night wore on, the cover of dark clouds became thicker.  
But Manami slept peacefully in her bed, oblivious to what was happening high above her.  
At three minutes after four on that spring morning a flash of lightning jumped across the sky, and the apartment shook with a rumble of thunder.

End Part 2 


	3. Chapter 3

Kimagure Orange Road

Spring Wonder

Chapter 3

_Turn wordwrap on. (where applicable)_

_Also, if you've never read the manga, it would be a very good time to read a synopsis of the last volume._

A cold wind blew through the empty streets of Tokyo that night, even though winter had died more than a month ago. The sudden, and equally unwelcome, chill had been heralded by a thunderstorm that—despite its fierceness—had lasted only twenty-seven minutes and eighteen seconds.

In a bedroom of an apartment in a certain part of Tokyo, something queer was afoot.

Manami walked into Kyosuke's bedroom to find Ayukawa waiting for her. She sat on the end of his bed wearing nothing but one of his school shirts. Manami could see a black t-back beneath the shirt tails.

What a wonderful experience of youth this was, Manami thought. The love of her life stopping by for a quick, passionate, roll in the hay.

"Hey honey," Ayukawa said. "I've got what you've been craving."

Part of Manami realized this sounded nothing like Ayukawa, but most of her didn't seem to give a damn.

They necked passionately, Manami kissing Ayukawa's neck and undoing the buttons on her shirt. Manami got a whiff of that vinegary smell of Ayukawa's that Manami loved so much.

Shirt: off. Bra: being unfastened as we speak. Panties: don't get ahead of yourself, Kyosuke.

Then again, why not? Before she knew it, Manami was making love to Ayukawa. It was something she'd wanted to do since they first met, and it was every bit as good as she imagined it would be...

Manami jerked awake from the cold. Her nose was running, and the room was filled with the smell of wet pavement. She wiped her nose on the back of her hand as she jumped out of bed. She was shocked to discover that she was naked; but quickly remembered how she got that way. She ran over to the window and slammed it shut. She switched on the light and got her winter robe from the closet. She'd almost put it into storage with the rest of her winter clothes; she was now glad she hadn't.

She sat down on her bed and looked at the myopia-blurred walls of her room. What in god's name had THAT been?

Was she gay? She'd never had thoughts like that before; EVER. She'd been reading that Yuri manga earlier, and even though she found it kind of sweet it hadn't made her want to go out and give it a try.

But, wait a second, in the dream... she had a penis.

Her confusion was magnified when she realized that the dream was still going on inside her head.

&"Oh, Kyosuke, you're such a man to make me feel like such a woman!"&

Manami would've recognized that maudlin dialogue anywhere: it's how her brother talked. She tried to stop the fantasy, but she couldn't. It wasn't even like when she stopped thinking about something and her mind kept creeping back to it.

It was then that she first noticed a very alien "taste" to the thoughts. Then, with a dreadful certainty, she realized: they weren't her thoughts at all.

- - - 

Kazuya was having a wonderful dream: he was Black Flash, the new leader of Flashman who came down to Earth to show his brethren what was what. He and the rest of Flashman were fighting Za Snotlocker when he was violently shaken awake.

"Kazuya!" a girl's voice said, with a certain hint of urgency.

Kazuya opened his eyes and looked around. His cousin, Manami, was there, in her pajamas.

"Whazgoing on?" Kazuya said, rubbing the crud out of his eyes. Was she sleeping over or something?

"I teleported over, I need to talk to you about something," Manami said.

Although Kazuya was annoyed, he was curious. It wasn't like Manami to act like this.

"Yes, I know I'm acting strange, but this is important," Manami said.

Kazuya looked up sharply. This couldn't be...

&can you read my thoughts?&

"Yes, I can," Manami said.

Kazuya's eyes bugged out. "That's... That's impossible! You never could before!"

"That's why I needed to talk to you!" Manami said.

Kazuya felt a burst of emotion from her, scattered thoughts. She was terrified. He backed away from her, rubbing his forehead.

"Shut up! Just shut up!" Kazuya said.

"I'm not saying anything," Manami said. Feelings of hurt.

&you know what I mean!&

"Oh," Manami said. She gulped and closed her eyes. After a few moments, the rush of thoughts slowed to a trickle.

How could this happen, he wondered. He concentrated on the thoughts in his cousin's mind, and began to push slowly. He had to know what had caused this...

There was a flash of images; it was pure thought: impossible to put into words. It gave him a feeling of warm and sticky joy that he wasn't at all comfortable with.

He was so lost in his cousin's thoughts that he didn't notice her shoving him off the bed. He only came out of it when he hit the floor.

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" she shouted, looking down at him. Her eyes burned with rage behind her glasses. The anger simmered off her like waves of heat.

Kazuya quickly scanned the minds of his parents and Akane: Akane was slightly aroused, but turned over and fell back to sleep. His parents hadn't heard anything.

"You idiot!" Kazuya said. "I'm trying to help you!"

"I'm sorry..." Manami trailed off. Feelings of hurt, of anger, of violation. She reached down and helped him up.

&you know, I could always read your mind, Manami. This is no different.&

\It's different because I never knew you were doing it before.\

Picture of stick man weeping. &boo-hoo&

- - - 

The sky was a dome of interlocking grey clouds. The cloud cover was so thick that it was impossible to tell where the sun was.

Manami shivered from the cold, in spite of the thick winter coat she was wearing. She hadn't remembered it being this cold even in the darkest depth of winter.

"Zip up your coat," Manami said.

&what're you, my mother?&

"You're cold, I can feel it, and it's making me even colder!" Manami said.

&pfffft, fine&

Manami wondered why he bothered to make the lip-flapping sound in his mind. She wondered how people would communicate if they didn't have mouths, and only telepathy.

&I never thought of that before...&

/When did you first realize you could read people's minds?/

&It was more that I discovered that other people couldn't. You wouldn't believe how much I freaked out the kids in preschool.&

"It must've been easier, growing up on a farm like you did," Manami said.

&WITH YOUR MIND! it's faster&

Manami noticed a hum in her mind. She turned to her cousin.

/Are you-/

"Someone's coming," he said out loud.

&Brace yourself. Normal people don't keep their minds tidy like I do.&

A salaryman turned a corner a few blocks ahead of them. The hum in Manami's head slowly resolved itself into chatter.

How much farther? Damn it, where were my gloves? They were in my coat pocket, did someone take them... Hey, what's this? Cute kid, and I'd like to take a shot at his sister. I bet she's a screamer. Dammit, why don't they ever repair these sidewalks, they're always so unlevel...

His thoughts dissipated with distance. Manami was blushing. Kazuya looked at her.

&What did he-& He got a flash of images. &Ew, gross! He's my father's age!&

/I never knew anyone thought that way about me before./

&I hear thoughts like that all the time when I'm out with Akane. She'd be surprised how many guys want to do stuff to her.&

"We're almost to the donut shop. This is going to be quite a shock, cuz," Kazuya said.

She got the image of someone falling into a pool. They struggled and drowned. The image played back, but this time the man didn't struggle. He sank right to the bottom of the pool, and then floated back up. He kicked his legs a little and it kept him afloat.

&It's like that. If you try to force their thoughts out of your head, you'll drown. You need to let yourself go; allow the thoughts to pass through your mind and out the other side. If you don't believe you'll drown, you'll float on the thoughts of others.&

/I understand./

&It's not that easy, but you'll see.&

They walked into the donut shop. As it was early, there were only three people there. To Manami it was like walking into a sawmill.

&Yeah, fat guy, you really need six more donuts.& #..from the file, into the char. Dammit, if only we could read more than a character at a time. Why won't that jackass let us use C++ instead?#

The girl behind the counter really had to go to the bathroom, but had to wait half-an-hour for her next break. Manami could feel the pain seep into her.

&Hold on Manami& The words were much stronger than any of the others. Kazuya must have a much stronger mind, Manami thought.

&Don't fight; ignore.&

He sent that as text, complete with punctuation.

&When your mind is full of their thoughts, you feel no need to think your own. Count backwards from 50.&

/Fifty, forty-nine, forty-eight/ &Graphically! It centers you more.&

/50,49,48,47... You know, for a kid, Kazuya knew quite a lot, 46/ &You know a lot about walking, because you do it all the time, right? Of course I'm an expert. So will you be, one day.&

/If this doesn't wear off./

Kazuya turned to look at his cousin, she felt disappointment from him.

&You would really give this up?&

/I don't want to know other people's thoughts./

&But it makes you better prepared. It makes people easier to deal with. It makes you...&

/Powerful/ Manami gave her cousin a sour look. The Imperial Theme from Star Wars played in both their heads.

&It's not like that. It's not like we're cheating; we can't think as deeply as other people because of the clutter.& Image of the ground evening out.

/It's working... I can still hear their thoughts, but I can talk to you at the same time./ &If you're really tired, it'll be hard to shut them out. And you'll start having other people's dream if they're in close contact&

/You mean I'll never dream my own dreams again?/

&Probably not. You can't be in control when you're asleep.&

An image of a piece of Manami's torso falling to the ground. Kazuya gave her a strange look.

&You're really strange.&

/You've been reading my thoughts for ten years now, and you're only realizing that now?/

Manami felt a block in his mind, and some embarrassment.

"The truth is..." Kazuya said.

/You never found me interesting enough to pay attention to my thoughts before./

&Well, they're like my mother's thoughts. Kyosuke's used to be really cool because he had these space battles going on in his head. But now all he thinks about is girls. He thinks like he talks too, by the way.&

/Yeah, I noticed that./

- - - 

Manami had never known dread before; but she did today as she walked through their apartment's front door. She walked into the kitchen and switched on the lights. She heard the distant buzzing of Kyosuke's electric shaver.

She put the pink box of donuts down in the center of the table and called out:"Breakfast!"

Manami took a seat and braced herself.

First down was Kurumi, still in pajamas. Her burbled thoughts told Manami she was fresh from bed; or perhaps she always thought like that. It matched the way she spoke.

"All right, donuts!" Kurumi said as she sat down. /It's a nice change from that traditional stuff she makes us eat/

Manami glared at her sister, but quickly took on a calm expression. She couldn't react to people's thoughts, or her secret would soon be out.

Kurumi proceeded to eat three donuts in less than a minute. The only thoughts in her head was the theme song of a Saturday morning cartoon she looped constantly.

Kyosuke came down next, a band-aid stuck on his face.

/I'm going to look like such an idiot/ he thought. /It takes a real brain-trust to nick himself with an electric razor./

He sat down at the table and took a couple of the chocolate glazed donuts. Feelings of glee and appreciation washed over Manami. She couldn't help smiling.

As Kyosuke ate, his thoughts turned back to the dream he'd had the night before; the one that Manami had inadvertently witnessed. He kept replaying the more explicit parts of the dream, causing Manami to blush. She had to excuse herself, claiming she had to get some juice from the refrigerator.

Manami couldn't believe how graphic and sensual her brother's thoughts were. Not only did he replay the image, but he imagined what sex must feel like, and ruminated on how good it must feel. But it wasn't just that... Mixed in with the pornographic images and thoughts were ones that were downright wholesome. The warm feeling he got when she smiled; an elated feeling when he saw her walking across the field behind the school, the sky utter blue, her sleek black hair blowing in the wind. The warm feeling he got seeing her in a sweater with a red scarf draped over her shoulders. Then, an image of Ayukawa eating a Vienna sausage. Okay, that last enough was closer to the other category.

Manami stared into the refrigerator, lost in thought. The light inside dimmed as the compressor hummed to life. These thoughts Kyosuke had... It couldn't simply be lust, not if he thought about Ayukawa that way. She'd never felt this type of thought before, but was this love? Was her brother in love with Ayukawa?

Manami had always secretly hoped that her brother would end up with Ayukawa; but it seemed that he and Hikaru were the sure thing. Did Hikaru know how her brother felt?

She got back to the table, and Kyosuke's mind had wandered. He was now remembering when he, Ayukawa and Hikaru had sailed their little boats during the O-Bon last year. His memories were accompanied by painfully melodramatic narration.

Her father came out of the darkroom, reeking of developer and fixer. He sat at the table and looked at the donuts.

"Hey donuts! Nice to have a change of pace," he said as he took one. /Was it too much trouble to make breakfast? It's not like I ask much of that girl./

Manami felt herself tearing up. She excused herself and slowly walked up the stairs. They couldn't see her eyes, so their was no point in running to give the game away.

She sat in the bathtub in the darkened bathroom and cried until it was time to leave for school.

- - - 

When one is out of one's depth, it is irresponsible not to ask for help. As Yuki wasn't one of the more feminine people she knew, she felt her love-letter writing skills were sorely lacking. So she sought out the help of her friend Kaori, who was the most femme person she knew.

They were sitting at a picnic table in the park across from school; it would be more than an hour before the first bell rang. If Yuki had known it would've been this cold, she wouldn't have arranged this meeting the night before. Their breath formed into mist as they spoke. The clouds overhead were deep gray, making the landscape look wetter than it really was.

"Look, right here," Kaori said, pointing to something on Yuki's rough draft. "Generally speaking, a phrase like 'shit happens' doesn't belong in a love letter."

"Noted," Yuki said with a nod.

Kaori let out a sigh. "Are you sure this is a good idea? I mean, you've got Komatsu."

"I only started going out with him to make Akane jealous. She was, is, and always shall be my only love," Yuki said.

Kaori frowned at her. "Maybe you shouldn't string him along, Yuki. I mean, I know how he appears at first... but he's actually a really nice guy. He doesn't deserve being toyed with like that."

"I know, I know..." Yuki said. "This has gotten out of control. I thought that Akane would get jealous; I guess I thought somewhere, deep down, she felt the same. But she doesn't."

"Then why are you writing the letter?" Kaori asked.

"She doesn't feel that way YET. How could she? She barely knows me. That's why I need to let her know how I feel, through this. Then maybe she'll think that I'm worth a shot. If she knew me, I'm sure she'd grow to love me."

"I don't know, Yuki... Do you think you could love someone who would use Komatsu the way you did?" Kaori said.

"We all have our moments of weakness," Yuki said. "She can forgive me that... Even if he never can."

"When do you plan to tell him?" Kaori said.

"Not right away; the relationship has to experience some turbulence first. If I play this right, I can make him dump me. Then I won't have to feel at all guilty," Yuki said. She looked up as she heard a sharp intake of breath. Kaori was staring at her, bemused. "What?"

Kaori just shook her head.

- - - 

"This is such a tragedy," Kyosuke said. "It's really spring now, the weather's got no business being so cold!"

Manami simply nodded, seemingly lost in thought.

Kurumi wasn't with them, as she was just getting into the shower as they left. Doubtless she was going to be late for school; though it wouldn't be the first time.

"Oniichan," Manami began.

Kyosuke looked at his sister: it was unusual to hear her so serious. Kyosuke wondered if she was going to reveal some intimate detail of her life. He smiled inwardly: they had gotten so close. It must be difficult for her to speak of such things, so he'd have to be kind and considerate.

"There's something I've been meaning to talk to you about. I just wasn't sure how to broach the subject," Manami said. "If you're uncomfortable talking about it, I understand,"

Ah, that was it, Kyosuke said. She was in love with someone. He imagined how hard this must be for her; to discuss the innermost workings of her heart. However, he felt gratified that she trusted him this much.

"No, please, I think I have an idea what you want to tell me," Kyosuke said.

"Well, it's about you and Ayukawa," Manami said.

Kyosuke stopped so fast that his sneakers squeaked. "WHAT?!"

"I've known for a while how you've felt about her," Manami said.

"How? I mean, what?!" Kyosuke felt his heart racing. "I mean, how?"

"Umm… That's not important. But, I am right: aren't I? You're in love with her?"

Kyosuke felt nervous; then he realized he had no need to be. He let himself remember Ayukawa, all the things about her that made her so special; all the things that made him…

"Yes. Yes it's true, I love her," Kyosuke said. It was a relief to say those words out loud; to tell someone, anyone, what he'd kept bottled up all these years.

"But what about Hikaru?" Manami asked. There was no challenge in her voice: only concern, and sadness.

"That's really not something I want to think about," Kyosuke said.

"But you have to!" Manami said. "You can't just continue to lead her on, you-" Manami's face scrunched up, and she backed away from her brother.

Kyosuke's flash of turmoil and grief dissipated and he grabbed his sister to steady her.

"Manami, are you all right?" Kyosuke asked.

"I didn't know you felt that strongly," Manami mumbled, her eyes still tightly closed. She then opened her eyes, and looked embarrassed. "I'm fine, oniichan. Just a little headache; I didn't get much sleep last night."

- - - 

The sudden onset of cold forced everyone who usually ate their lunch in the school's courtyard back into their crowded, stuffy classrooms. Hence, Kasuga was forced to have lunch with Komatsu and Hatta; something he hadn't been forced to do since before the spring equinox.

"So, if you had to choose, which would you rather be: a Time Lord or a Jedi?" Hatta said.

"Pffft, that's a stupid question. A Time Lord. Jedi's are just cops with shiny light swords," Komatsu said.

"Yeah, but the Jedi are in touch with the Force; they can see things before they happen," Hatta said.

"What, and a Time Lord can't? Hello, Hello anybody home? Think, Hatta, THINK: a Time Lord can cross time as easily as we walk across a room. A Jedi's got nothing on that," Komatsu said.

"Okay, if they're so powerful and shit, then how come they need those blue boxes to move around in?" Hatta said.

Komatsu let out a long, impatient sigh. "Look, how many times do I have to say this: only the Doctor's TARDIS looks like that. The camouflage system got stuck; the other ones blend into the environment."

"Well if the Time Lords are so great, then how come the Doctor can't fix his stupid TARDIS so it doesn't have that shape anymore?" Hatta said.

"Well, you're a human being, and I don't think you could've come up with the calculus," Kasuga said.

"Oooh, Kasuga, that's harsh..." Komatsu said. "That's like something Ayukawa would say," He looked around the room. "Speaking of which, where is the little delinquent?"

Kasuga look concerned. "I don't know; Hikaru's absent too..."

"Maybe they're off doing something together..." Hatta said. Then he got a perverted look on his face. "Like each other. Heh-heh-heh... They would make such a cute couple, don't you think?"

"Couldn't be," Akane said from across the aisle. "Ayukawa's straight."

"Are you certain of that?" Komatsu said.

"Yes," Akane said, with sadness in her voice. "We can smell our own."

It's probably true, Akane noted to herself. The assumption that it was possible to change someone's sexuality was not only ridiculous, but made her a hypocrite.

But... Madoka and Hikaru had apparently always been very close: perhaps its possible that there was something more than friendship there. Of course, that presented an entire host of different problems. But perhaps Madoka was the water-carrier in that relationship, and Hikaru was as straight as a laser beam...

Akane shook her head; she was hoping for something that was so improbable: there was a better chance of the Japanese economy collapsing.

Akane finished off her sandwich and wiped the crumbs from her hands. She reached into the bag for her desert, and discovered that her mother had packed a pear for her. Akane felt a pang of anger, but she did love the look and feel of pears.

Pears reminded her of the waist/hip curve of a woman's body—easily the most sensuous part. She remembered the first time she'd seen Madoka in a bikini; her curves were so sublime. Akane moved the pear towards her mouth, and ran her tongue along the unbroken skin.

She couldn't give up, she realized. All of her doubts were obliterated in that moment. If there was any chance at all, she had to take it. Some things were worth fighting for.

Hatta's nose was starting to bleed. He, Komatsu, and Kasuga were intrigued by the attention Akane was giving to the pear. After a moment, she bit into it; they all winced in pain.

"Well," Komatsu said. "...well," was all he could come up with.

"I've... uh, gotta go to the bathroom," Komatsu said.

"Yeah, I've got to go to the roof, and, uh... check for UFOs," Hatta said.

"I've going to the gym supply room to make sure nothing's been stolen," Kasuga said.

- - - 

Manami's head was throbbing by 11:50. It was easily the worst headache she'd ever had: complete with the visual aura associated with migraines. Unless that was another new power she had. It hurt her head even more to think about that.

The thoughts had gotten louder during lunch, contrary to expectation. They weren't passive, bored thoughts like during class. They were active and involved; Manami kept losing the thread of the conversation, and once found herself answering one of her classmate's thoughts: gaining her the strangest look she'd gotten in her entire life.

She decided to go the library, the place she remembered for being quiet and serene. It would be the perfect place to lay low for a couple of periods. Then she'd brave the last three periods and go home.

The halls were empty, it being the middle of a period, so Manami's mind was already beginning to relax. The power of thoughts diminished with distance; and, oddly enough, the intensity of a thought didn't seem to lengthen its range. That caused quite a shock when she came in the orbit of someone who was experiencing a crisis.

Manami arrived before the giant oak doors leading into the library; she stood there for a moment, allowing a smile to come to her lips. This was going to feel so good; like crawling into a warm bath after a long day. She gripped the handle and pulled open the door.

Her minded was almost deafened by the onslaught. So many different thoughts, from so many different minds, racing at a speed she hadn't experienced in another person.

Co-sine of the arc-sine is theta itself... No, wait, that isn't right... !The power of the individual is paramount, as only the individual can be decisive! #The most merciful thing in the world is the inability of the human mind to correlate its contents.#

Manami grabbed her head, and rushed out of the library. It was astounding, she thought when she was able; her teachers would be quite angry if they knew how little thinking their students did in class.

Manami leaned her back against the wall and allowed herself to slide to a sitting position. She pushed her glasses up to her forehead and rubbed her eyes. She didn't hear the door opening or the footsteps, but knew one of her classmates was passing by the presence of his thoughts.

#Hey, Kasuga Manami... Zowie! I'd like to find the area between those curves!#

This was followed by a flattering, and very inaccurate, rendering of Manami in the nude. She felt herself blush; she looked up, but the boy wasn't even looking at her. He was walking down the hallway, humming something she didn't recognize in his mind.

She tried to remember his name; she thought it was Katsuhiro. She'd never noticed him before—she certainly had no idea that he, or anyone, thought about her in that way. There had been the dirty old man in his thirties she'd met on the street earlier, but that hadn't been someone she knew.

The irony was sickening: Manami had gotten into this situation because Kurumi had convinced her that all the guys had seen her as some sort of mommy figure. Manami now knew that guys needed very little prompting to think of girls in erotic ways.

- - - 

Charm school was winding down for the day. Akane and Akiko sat at their desk, working earnestly on their flower arrangements. Periodically Akiko glanced at the clock.

"It doesn't look right," Akiko said, trying to move her lips as little as possible.

"It's free expression; we'll be graded on form, not contents," Akane said without looking up or moving her lips at all. She simply parted them to let the sound flow out.

Three minutes later Shimizu-sensei walked among the rows of desks and appraised each arrangement. By the time she got to their desk, she looked weary from disappointment. She gave Akiko's a cursory nod, but took some time to look at Akane's.

"That's an interesting use of materials, Akane. Perhaps you'd like to tell us what you were thinking," Shimizu-san said, challenge in her voice.

Akane smiled good-naturedly. "Well it's about the splendour of spring. You see, that's why we have the long grass around the edges. Not especially elegant, but its wonderful verdant hues are refreshing, as is the smell. Dandelions aren't even flowers, but again they're associated with summer, and these young dandelions let us know that even though summer is not yet here, it will be soon. The cat-tails remind of those fields in Hokkaido where I grew up."

"Akane… Are you aware of the fact that there are no actual flowers in your flower arrangement?" Shimizu-sensei asked.

"Flowers are over-perfumed, bitter and remind me of enclosed spaces. There are some things they aren't able to convey," Akane said.

The two locked gazes for a long moment.

After a moment, Shimizu-sensei smiled. "Exceptional job, Akane."

There was a collective sigh of relief from the rest of the room. Shimizu-sensei walked back to the front of the room and sat down.

"Class dismissed," she said.

"Wow. That really took guts, Akane," Akiko said.

Akane and five of the girls from her class were filing out of the building onto the sidewalk. Each of them had a bad case of the shivers as the biting wind hit them.

"She respects strength," Akane said.

"That certainly doesn't sound like the Shimizu-sensei I know," one of them, Haruki, replied.

Akane clucked her tongue several times in disappointment. "You haven't been paying attention in class, Haruki. A lady should be strong, but not insolent. Insolence presents a challenge, but hidden strength gets past defenses and awakens reason."

"Wow!" another of the girls, Eri, exclaimed, her eyes shining.

"You're really good at this," another one, Ryoko, said. "You'd put the empress to shame."

"You must've grown up in an upper-class household," Eri said.

Akane sighed. "Weren't you listening in class? I spent most of my life on a farm in Hokkaido. You just need to pay attention to the material; it's amazing what you can do when you try."

By the time they reached Shinjuku station, Akane and Akiko were the only ones left. Akiko and Akane stared through the window at the landscape as it blurred by.

Akane felt strangely numb inside. She liked insolence; some of her best friends were insolent. Hikaru, and Madoka in her better moments. Wasn't what was wrong with society these days is that people weren't insolent enough?

"How do you do it Akane?" Akiko said.

Akane shook off her ponderings and looked to her friend. Had she missed something? Had she been so deep in her thoughts that she missed something else Akiko said? Probably not, there were only five people on the train, and no one else was talking.

"I'm sorry, what?" Akane said.

"How did you manage to become so popular?" Akiko said.

It was a strange question; one which Akane hadn't ever conceived of before. Was she popular? Well, not in school… Wait, she had been popular at Hoshi's; very popular in fact. And she'd become popular in charm school as well. She'd never thought to ask why.

"I don't know," Akane said. "I shouldn't be, should I?"

"Why not? You're the best student in the class," Akiko said. "The other day, after class, Shimizu-sensei said you were the best student she ever had; and she taught the empress."

Akane felt herself blushing, she also felt her skin crawl. This is how spies must feel, she realized. How do they keep on living the lie like that?

But that thought passed out of her mind as she thought back to her popularity. She was very popular among girls, she realized. She suddenly got a devious smile as the realization dawned: she was a babe-magnet.

That little ego-boost carried her through the rest of the day without any guilty feelings whatsoever.

- - - 

Manami kicked off her shoes and crawled under the sheets. The bed was still unmade, she hadn't had the chance to make it after she departed abruptly that morning. Manami took off her glasses and snuggled the comforter. She didn't believe she'd ever felt more relieved to be back in bed.

It was just a little past four, but Manami was profoundly tired. She realized that she'd been up since three that morning, and she'd only gotten three hours of sleep the night before. She felt a surge of hope in her heart: so it wasn't just the telepathy that had made her feel so overwhelmed today. Tomorrow might be better, she thought. That is, if the power didn't fade, or she didn't find a way to get rid of it.

As her muscles untensed, she allowed the steel-grip she kept on her thoughts—or more to the point other people's thoughts—to relax. It was almost quiet here, the background buzz was nowhere near as strong. The population density in a residential neighborhood was smaller than that of a school. Perhaps she could stay home from school tomorrow?

She listened to the buzz for awhile as she drifted off. Finally her curiosity got the better of her. The buzz was like background noise, it only sounded like a buzz because she wasn't attempting to listen to any part of it. She concentrated on a thought pattern she recognized very well, and strained to listen. It was shocking how clearly she heard the thoughts. This wasn't like squinting or straining to hear: the strength of thoughts diminished with distance, but their content did not.

Kazuya was in his living room, taking a Famicom Disk System out of its box. Manami remembered that his birthday was the following week. She had to remember to get him something.

&A cake would be nice. You know mom's cooking.& he sent.

Manami's muscles tensed. Across the street in his apartment, Kazuya smiled; Manami could feel the muscles in his face contorting into the proper shape.

&That's pretty impressive long-distance telepathy, Manami. Why don't you try poking around some more. I have some…& He looked down at a plastic sleeve containing a small yellow disk and read the label. &...Hyrulian Adventuring to do.&

\All right.\ Manami sent.

She listened to a few more thoughts, looking for Akane's, but couldn't find any.

&She's not here; she usually doesn't come back until six. I have no idea where she goes. You can't read her thoughts anyway.&

\What? Why not?\

&She's partially telepathic, so she knows when someone's probing her mind. You might be able to overpower the block, or she might let you in. But she's never done that for me.&

Manami gave the telepathic equivalent of a grunt of acknowledgement, and continued to browse through the buzz that surrounded her mind.

#The evil that men do lives after them, the good if oft interred with their bones, so let it be with Caesar#, first in English, then quickly translated into Japanese. Manami wished she had that depth of skill.

$This is how we brush our teeth, brush our teeth, brush our teeth, so early in the morning$ the thought echoed in her mind. She suddenly realized that it was one thought, being thought by many different minds. She'd never felt something like this before, and it was scary in its starkness. She realized that the thought must be coming from the preschool a block over.

She listened to a few more verses of the song, the slow, strong melody lulled her to sleep.

- - - 

She awoke just before seven, the sun had just set and the clouds about the horizon were blood red.

She sat up and rubbed the gunk from her eyes. She'd has the strangest dreams of her entire life. Then she realized: they hadn't been her dreams.

Still, she felt as she'd been reborn. As she walked down into the family room, she was able to silence the thoughts of her family with minimal effort. She'd never thought herself a quick-study, but she had managed this admirably. Of course, she'd had plenty of practice.

After they'd eaten (Manami made yakitori that night) Manami cloistered herself in her room, claiming she had some studying to do. She took out a map of the Kanto region and made several marks on it. That done, she pulled on her coat, placing the folded map in one of its pockets, concentrated, and teleported.

It took six jumps to get to her grandparent's house. These were the long-distance, exhausting jumps that she and her siblings rarely made. When Kurumi was younger, she used to hop around Japan and decorated her room with all sorts of trinkets. Their friends and neighbors wondered how the Kasuga family could take so many family trips without anyone ever noticing.

Kurumi had once even threatened to jump across to China or the Korean peninsula, but their father finally put his foot down. When one of them failed to make a jump to the correct location, they usually ended up somewhere in-between; and Kurumi wasn't that good of a swimmer.

Manami finally made it to her grandparent's front door. She knocked, and after a moment her grandmother answered.

"Good evening," Manami said, the world swimming around her. "Is grampa around?"

Her grandmother's bewildered face was the last thing Manami saw before she was swallowed in darkness.

The next thing she saw was her grandfather's face above her. He looked more amused than concerned. Manami sat up, finding herself on the couch in the living room. There was a sweet smell in the air—hot chocolate, she realized.

"Grampa…" she said, at a loss for words. She couldn't remember why she was here.

"Take it easy, my child. You've had a busy day," her grandfather said.

Then she remembered everything. Her grandfather helped her over to the table. She sunk her feet into the leg-warmer beneath the table, and her grandfather gave her a mug of hot chocolate. She sipped it, and felt luscious warmth flow into her. It had been such a cold day.

Slowly and carefully, Manami told her grandfather what had happened. She didn't go into details about what brought on the event, but her grandfather gave her a knowing look while she sputtered over that part.

Finally she asked the question she'd come there to ask. "Is there a way to make this go away?"

"You need to understand Manami, that you weren't just granted this power out of the blue. You've always had it; you just needed a strong enough emotional experience to shake it loose," her grandfather said.

"But I couldn't have had this power and not known it!" Manami said. "Kazuya said he could read minds as far back as he could remember."

"Yes, as far back as he can remember," her grandfather said. "His first few years of life were happy ones for his family. As such, the feelings around him were of warmth and love."

"What are you saying?" Manami said, growing angry. "Our family isn't a dysfunctional one! Our father never abused us or molested us. What the hell are you…" Then she got it.

"Yes. During those first few months of your life, your father and brother were overtaken by almost unbearable grief over the loss of your mother. It stands to reason that if you could feel their thoughts and emotions you would react in a way to make that pain go away. You suppressed the power, and you've always been suppressing it unconsciously. Just as you constricted your emotions," her grandfather said.

Manami leaned back until her back was on the floor and stared at the ceiling. It was true, she realized. It was not only her own feelings that she had been holding back all those years.

"But grampa… I can't cope with this. Kazuya's had his entire life to learn how to deal with this. I'm a teenager, I have enough on my plate already!" Manami said.

"What would you have me do?" Grampa asked.

Manami sat back up. "There was that ring you let me borrow when I was sick, so I could keep my powers from getting out of control#," Manami said.

"You mean this?" Grampa said, taking the ring from one the right sleeve-pocket of his yukata. He was full of surprises--he knew she'd ask. "Here," he said. "Take it."

Manami took it; suddenly she felt indescribable dread. It felt like once when she'd been electrocuted by the electric mixer. But this was worse, it was dark, and vile, and alien. She dropped the ring, it clattered on the floor.

"It's… It's alive!" Manami said.

Grampa gingerly picked it up and stuffed it back into his sleeve-pocket.

"Yes, it contains some kind of parasite that feeds on our powers. It must be very long lived: this ring is as old as the village that once stood here," Grampa said. "As you can see, it's only useful in the most dire situations. I have no idea what the long term effects would be, but I doubt they're good."

Manami sighed; as disturbed as she was by the feel of the ring, she still wished it had worked. "Kyosuke once told me about how he went back in time…"

"Yes, but that has its own problems," Grampa said. "You may be able to go back to yesterday and stop yourself from doing whatever it was that gave you this power--"

Manami blushed.

"--but you need to understand that you're simply traveling back and forth on your own time-stream; the you that exists now is the you that will appear twenty-four hours ago. You'll still have the power," Grampa said.

"What if I left myself a note and then jumped back to the present?" Manami said.

"Do you remember reading a note last night?" Grampa asked.

"No," Manami said.

"Then you didn't leave yourself a note," Grampa said.

"But if I go back and leave myself a note, then I will have read it," Manami said.

"But if you do that, and never get the power, than you won't have a reason to go back and leave yourself the note," Grampa said.

"But I'll tell myself in the note to go back and leave myself the note," Manami said.

"But it won't be the same you that went back and left the note in the first place. And since that you never existed to start the loop, the loop never started to begin with, and you're back where you started," Grampa said.

And Manami thought that telepathy gave her a headache.

"Temporal dynamics aside, Manami, do you really want to live the rest of yourself without experiencing the thing that freed this ability in you?" Grampa asked.

Manami thought about it… The aftermath had scared the hell out of her; but what she felt… That little explosion inside her; she'd never felt anything that good before; and the feeling of peace and rightness she'd felt afterwards… These were things she wouldn't ever want to give up; not if she didn't have to.

"I… I suppose telepathy is a small enough price to pay," Manami said.

Grampa nodded in approval. "Just remember that, when you feel you can't bear it anymore. It'll carry you through the hard times."

"Grampa, there's something else… Only Kazuya knows I have this power, and now you. I don't want anyone else to know," Manami said. "It's one thing to know that I can move things around with my mind and teleport… But if they know I can read their minds, they'll never look at me the same way again."

"I understand Manami; but don't you think they have a right to know?" Grampa said.

"I'll tell them, eventually; but I don't need them trying to cope with my new abilities at the same time I am," Manami said.

"All right, that's settled then. Now, I suggest you get some sleep. I'll help you teleport back later," Grampa said.

"But I need to be back for school," Manami said.

"Don't worry," her grandfather said, his eyes gleaming. "I'll get you back before dawn."

# - see "The Rumbling Spirit" by the same author.

- - - 

Tuesday.

Akane was worried. Madoka had been absent for two days in a row. Akane wouldn't put it past Madoka to skip a couple of days of school, but she couldn't help feeling concerned.

It was those feeling of concern that brought her to the Ayukawas' front door on this cold day in April. Akane sighed and noticed the sigh float past her face as clouds of mist. She'd checked the weather section of the Tokyo Times at breakfast, and it didn't look like this cold snap was going to pass anytime soon. This weather, combined with Madoka's absence, made her incredibly irritable. It certainly didn't help that it followed such a blissful weekend.

She had rung the doorbell three times, and had waited at least two minutes since the last ring. Painful thoughts wormed their way through Akane's mind. She took a few deep sniffs, but smelled only the nostril-stinging freshness of the newly fallen snow; no decay. So either Madoka was still alive, or not near the front door.

She tried to turn the doorknob, but it wouldn't budge. She walked around the perimeter of the house and found the sliding door that led out onto the patio. She felt a gush of relief as it slid open.

She walked into the darkened kitchen. She noticed several dirty dishes in the sink. Akane frowned; that wasn't like Madoka. She washed up after every meal: Akane had even joked about her having Obsessive-Compulsive disorder. But… what if the dishes weren't Madoka's?

Horrible ideas flashed through Akane's minds; an older man, from out of town. He showed up every month or so, and he and Madoka slept together. She imagined Madoka's naked form squatting atop him, writhing in ecstasy.

It was certainly possible; as Kyosuke once said, they knew so little of Madoka's gang years. It was quite possible she'd have an old beau from back then.

Akane stopped, with her hand resting on the yule-post of the staircase. Did she really want to know if it was true or not? It was probably better to always have some doubt; but she couldn't imagine going the rest of her life not knowing.

She steeled herself and walked up the stairs. The upstairs hallway was as dark as the rest of the house, no light came from the doors leading into the various bedrooms. One door alone was closed: the door leading into Madoka's room. Akane went over to it, and turned the knob.

It was just as dark inside. In the dim greenish light of the alarm clock's LED display she saw Madoka lying in her bed, alone. Akane's heartbeat raced; she flicked the light switch on and light flooded the room.

There were empty instant ramen boxes on the bed stand, as well as some empty bottles of juice, and a few dirty wineglasses. Madoka was cocooned in dirty sheets; a layer of grease covered both her face and hair. Her eyes flung open and she sat up, alarmed.

"Madoka, I….," Akane started. No, this wasn't about her. "Are you okay? I called you seven times last night,"

Madoka breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed on her bed. "Oh, Akane… Thank God," she said.

Akane walked over to the bed.

"I've got a bad case of the flu. I haven't felt this bad in my entire life," Madoka said.

"Have you seen a doctor?" Akane asked.

"Yeah, my parents have a friend that still makes house-calls," Madoka said. She pulled the blanket up over her dirty nightgown self-consciously. "I'm sorry, I must look horrible, I didn't expect company,"

"I just wish I could look that beautiful when I was sick," Akane laughed. She wasn't joking, though.

- - - 

"The oxygen tubes won't fit into the samurai helmet," Hatta, wearing his prop-master hat, said.

"Well, just tape them on then, the thing doesn't have to be functional," Komatsu said in a worn-out voice.

"What, and have the tape show up on film? We have standards in this film company," Hatta said.

"And that crab suit of yours was the pinnacle of verisimilitude?" Yuki said.

"Verisawhat?" Hatta said.

"It's a big Scrabble word for believability," Komatsu said.

Hatta sneered and walked off, yelling at one of the Hoshi girls to get him some tape.

The cold wasn't doing much to help Komatsu's mood. Had it been only three days ago when they started shooting? Everything seemed fresh and new then. It was an exciting time; now they were shooting linking footage.

Komatsu shuddered as the words passed through his brain; was there any viler combination of words in the Japanese language than that? The scenes no one ever notices, but their absence destroys the movie. They could also completely ruin them by introducing continuity errors--which were impossible to check since the film for the scenes they linked hadn't been developed yet.

"You know," Yuki said. "This film of yours really sucks."

"Yeah, I know," Komatsu said.

Yuki looked at him, nonplussed. After a moment she continued. "You know movies like Gamera and Godzilla are not something you should be seeking to imitate."

"I know, I was a fool," Komatsu said. He reached his hands out, as if he was grasping the air. "I want to do something serious and mature, but I'm stuck doing this," Komatsu said. "It's hard getting up in the morning knowing I'm making something that people will consider a joke." He shook his head. "I bet you Kurosawa never had days like this."

"That's because Kurosawa was a far superior director," Yuki said.

"I know! But how does someone like me become someone like that? No one is born a genius; they have to learn the ropes, the same as everyone else. But how do you become great? What is it that people like Kurosawa, Kubrick and Welles do that those others don't? How do I stop being a hack?" Komatsu said.

Yuki just stared at him; after a moment she shrugged.

"Thank you, Yuki," Komatsu said, jumping to his feet. There was a gleam in his eyes that wasn't there before. "You've given me the courage to go on. I don't want to spend the rest of my life as a C, or even B, director. I'm going to push myself, and discover what it is to be great!"

Komatsu kissed her hand and then rushed off onto the field, shouting commands at his crew.

Yuki emitted a groan of frustration. She'd been trying to insult him and cause a breakup. How could he be so damn dense?!

- - - 

Wednesday.

Hikaru was still feeling a little out-of-sorts, but part of that was the knowledge that she had to go back to school tomorrow. She had long ago learned to distinguish between the two types of weariness: the healthy kind that felt good when you finally lie down at the end of a long day, and the vitality-sucking halo of dizziness that accompanied sickness. The latter had finally left her; leaving her with more than her fair share of the former.

Hikaru rang the doorbell and waited. She couldn't help feeling guilty. Madoka had asked for help; which she almost never did. Hikaru's illness, the same that had felled her friend, prevented her from offering it. Luckily she had recovered first and would be able to do something.

The door swung open and Hikaru saw Akane standing there. She was wearing an apron and bowed to Hikaru as if she were the lady of the house.

"Greeting Hikaru-chan, come in, come in!" Akane said.

Hikaru wondered if Akane could invite her into someone else's house; luckily she wasn't a vampire and wouldn't find out. She walked across the threshold.

"Uh, what're you… I mean…" Hikaru stumbled. How could she ask while still being polite?

"Please, have a seat," Akane said, motioning to the living room. "I've got to check my dumplings. I'll be right back."

Akane slid on her slippered feet into the kitchen. Hikaru, for lack of anything better to do, went into the living room and sat down. The blinds had been pulled up, not simply open, and the room smelled of fresh air, even though the windows were closed. Akane must've aired out the house, Hikaru realized.

What the hell was going on? Akane was behaving like Madoka's mother. Were Madoka and Akane such good friends already? Surely you had to be very good friends with someone to care for them when they were sick…

Akane came in, still clad in apron, and sat across the table from Hikaru. "You probably want to see Ayukawa, right?" Akane said. "She's taking a nap right now, but if you can stay until five, that's when I'm waking her."

Hikaru felt a creeping emptiness inside her. She'd felt it before: it was how she felt when she wanted something she couldn't have. Not so much jealousy as despair. But it didn't make sense for her to feel that way; not now.

"I…" Hikaru said. She couldn't think of any way to ask the question without sounding petty; so she gave up on it. "How is she?"

"Getting better, I hope. She said that her stomach cramps have gone away now that she's eating real food," Akane said, a hint of pride in her voice. "She's also got a runny nose, which means she's in the last phase of the flu. She'll probably be back to school on Monday, if not Saturday."

"…That's good to hear," Hikaru said. It was, so why did she feel so bitter?

Hikaru shocked herself when she realized that she had no interest in seeing her old friend. She rose to her feet. "Tell Madoka I was here; I might stop by tomorrow."

"Oh, it's only an hour and a half," Akane said. "I'm sure seeing you will make her feel a lot better."

"I've got four days of homework to catch up on," Hikaru said. "Tell her I hope she gets better soon."

She didn't spare another word to Akane as she left. She walked almost a mile, deep in thought, before she realized she was walking in the wrong direction. Even though it was Akane and Madoka's relationship that was bothering her, for some reason she kept thinking about Kyosuke.

- - - 

Madoka looked refreshed when she awoke. Her face was losing its paleness, and the glow that Akane so loved was returning to her cheeks.

Akane brought her tea on a bed tray, and pulled up a chair next to the bed as Madoka drank it.

"I'm going to be a little late tomorrow," Akane said. "So don't expect me before six. I'll come over on the way to school to make you breakfast, though."

"Thank you Akane, but that isn't really necessary. I've almost beaten this bug, it's time I spent some more time up and around," Madoka said.

"It's no trouble at all," Akane said with a flustered smile. "I'm glad to do it."

Madoka gave her a cheerful smile. "I'm lucky to have such a good and devoted friend, Akane."

Akane couldn't help feeling stung. Friend: is that all she was?

"The mail came while you were asleep," Akane said. She handed Madoka a purple envelope. "I got one of these yesterday. It's an invitation to a party being thrown by some guy called Jun Ryoushi. You ever hear of him?"

"Ah, Jun," Madoka said, her cheeks blushing just a bit. Akane didn't like that look one bit. "You wouldn't have met him, I suppose. His name starts with r, so he's in the other homeroom. We were good friends back in elementary school, though," Madoka said, and smiled a mysterious smile.

"Is there something you want to tell me?" Akane said, trying to sound playful. There was a surge of angry jealousy inside her, making her chest burn.

"Perhaps another time," Madoka said. "I really hope you're going to go, Akane. You'll really like him, I think. He's a great guy."

Akane almost mentioned that she had no interest in guys, but something held her back. Was it possible that Madoka didn't know that by now? She must; she must!

"I might, unless you're not well by then. We could have a movie night," Akane said. "I've been wanting to take a crack at that Laserdisc player in your living room."

"Oh, I know I'll be better by then," Madoka coughed then, as if she were disputing the point. "On the other hand, maybe it's a good idea not to rush it," she wavered.

Madoka pulled her winter kimono tight around her shoulders. "I just wish this cold weather would pass."

"I know what you mean," Akane said. "After this last month, I feel slighted."

Madoka shook her head. "It's not just that. I don't want some middling warm weather, I want summer. I want my arms and shoulders to bake in the sun; I feel like I've been frozen to the bone this winter. It'll take a while for me to thaw."

Akane nodded sagely. She knew that only too well.

- - - 

Thursday.

Manami was getting the hang of this. It had been difficult at first; dreaming other people's dreams, having to build a wall in her head whenever she was close to someone, and the constant background buzz when she was alone. None of that bothered her anymore. She'd even managed to get through yesterday without a single migraine. She was still drained at the end of the day, however.

She was sharpening her pencils with a handheld sharpener when Hikaru arrived. Manami recognized her first as a mind in the distance that she hadn't felt before, but which felt familiar at the same time. She looked up and saw Hikaru taking her usual seat across the aisle.

"Feeling better?" Manami asked. "You look great."

"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks. It's great to be back!" Hikaru said.

Manami gave Hikaru a strange look. Hikaru sounded like her usual cheery self, but her mind was a maelstrom of gloom and hurt. Manami wondered if its was Hikaru's sickness; she'd never read the mind of a sick person before.

But, no, that isn't what this was. This was depression, not just fatigue. Manami heard that sometimes people got depressed when they were ill, but there was something else.

Hikaru turned to look at her. "What? Are you okay Manami?"

Manami saw her own face flash before her mind's eye; it had a confused and concerned look. But Hikaru noticed something, the sheen of the hair, the shape of the nose; suddenly her face morphed into that of her brother's…

It was the most beautiful feeling Manami had ever had; pure, perfect love; but it was tinged with despair. Manami felt a phantom cramp in her stomach: Hikaru was afraid of losing him.

Then Manami realized where she'd felt love like that before.

"I… I'm fine, I just," Manami said, stumbling out of her chair. She quickly walked out the door and into the hallway. It was still between classes and there were people in the hallway, so Manami cast her eyes down so that people wouldn't see the tears.

Hikaru really loved him, Manami thought. It wasn't just infatuation; it may be an inconvenience for her brother, but it was no less real than his feelings for Ayukawa.

Manami got to the bathroom and sat in one of the stalls. She pulled off her glasses and wiped the tears from her eyes. A sob started, but she arrested and repressed it.

It seemed that things weren't going to be as easy as I thought, Manami thought. Something like this, unrequited love, wasn't all that uncommon. People with crushes; children who hated their parents; people cheating on their spouses; salarymen robbing their employers… All of these things she would be privy to.

When the next sob came, she didn't hold it back.

- - - 

Akane stared out the window at a wondrous sunset. The sky was dark-blue and the brightest stars were already visible; the horizon was rimmed in red and bands of orange light rose from it into the young night sky.

She heard the clank of Madoka's spoon in her coffee cup; Akane spared her a glance. She looked a little pale. It was only a mile from Madoka's house to this coffee-shop, but she looked pooped. Akane was glad she was able to dissuade Madoka from walking all the way to ABCB.

"That was a glorious walk we had," Madoka said. "It's too bad it was so cold."

"Maybe it was too soon to leave the house," Akane said. "I could've fixed us dinner there."

"No, I'm feeling much better; not a hundred percent yet, but I'm getting there," Madoka said.

"By the way," Madoka said, motioning with her spoon. "That ribbon is very becoming on you."

Akane gritted her teeth. She kept forgetting to take the silk ribbon out of her hair when she left charm school. Usually she caught her reflection in a shop window and took if off before she got home. She'd been in such a rush to get to Madoka that she hadn't had time to look in any shop windows this evening.

"Uh…. Thanks," Akane said. "I'm trying out a new look," Akane said, trying to sound casual.

"I'm all for it," Madoka said with a smile. "You'd be surprised how much accessorizing can improve your appearance. It's a nice confidence boost."

Akane laughed nervously. "I don't even own any jewelry. I could never get my ears pierced: afraid of needles."

"Well you don't need to poke a hole in your skin to add a little something. Try headbands, necklaces, bracelets, anklets—" Madoka said, stopping as Akane snorted. "What?"

Akane adopted a wide, sheepish grin. "It's just, the thing is… At Hoshi, anklets had a special meaning."

"What, like gang signs or something?" Madoka said.

"Not quite," Akane said. "You see, a girl wears an anklet to show that she lost her virginity."

"Ohhh," Madoka said, and then was quite for a moment. "So you've never..."

"Nope," Akane said. "How about you?" Then, quickly: "If you don't mind answering; that is."

"It would be disingenuous of me not to answer after I asked you," Madoka said. "It's safe to say that this flower has not yet been plucked. Hey, you're blushing!" she said with a laugh.

"It's just, I've never talked about these things before… " Akane said. With someone I loved, she commented to herself.

"I'm sorry, if you're uncomfortable we can talk about something else," Madoka said.

"No! That's fine, it's nice being able to talk about these things with someone," Akane said.

Akane squirmed in her chair; the next question was going to take guts. "When was the first time that you thought about… doing it."

Madoka stared up at the ceiling in thought. "Back in junior high, I guess. There was this guy that Hikaru and I used to run around with. He was older; about five years or so. The first crush I ever had."

Akane thought that it sounded like Madoka wanted to say something more, but she just stared out at the setting sun.

"What about you?" Madoka asked.

"A bit earlier, there was…someone when I was 10. Same age, though, in my case," Akane said.

"Funny, I would've expected you'd be after someone older. Guys mature later than we do," Madoka said.

Akane felt her face flushing. "Yes, well…."

An hour later they were walking home. Madoka was shivering.

"Maybe this really wasn't such a good idea," Madoka said.

"Don't worry, it's only a couple more blocks. You're strong, Ayukawa, I know you can make it," Akane said.

Madoka looked pale in the cold moonlight. Akane couldn't help remembering Higuchi Ichiyo, who they'd been learning about in literature class. Madoka looked like those pictures she'd seen of her in books; when her lungs were being eaten from the inside by tuberculosis germs and she didn't even realize. Akane felt a shiver that had nothing to do with the cool night.

As they were walking past the front gate of Madoka's house, Akane caught a flicker of movement down the street. She pretended to look at the nameplate on the stone fence, but kept flicking her eyes over to the grove of trees at the end of the street. She could make out a pair of shoes on the ground, but the rest of the figure was in shadow. Akane probably would have thought she was seeing things if she'd couldn't feel the dim buzz of a mind associated with those pair of feet.

"Is something wrong?" Madoka asked. "Our family name isn't all that interesting."

"No, it's nothing… Just a little tired I guess. But hey, look who I'm talking to. Let's get you inside," Akane said.

A few minutes later, after Madoka was safely tucked away in bed, Akane snuck out into the front yard, pulling the door shut with a soft swoosh and click. She crept along on her hands and knees until she got to the stone fence. She slowly looked over the lip of the fence; the figure was still there. She locked onto the mind and projected an image of a piece of cardboard falling from the top of the stone fence to the sidewalk, and the wind blowing it towards him.

Hopefully the lurker wouldn't notice that there wasn't a breeze blowing the piece of cardboard. Akane moved softly; she could block her footsteps mentally, but it would be far too much trouble.

She cross the street, the piece of cardboard the figure saw would be flipping over a couple of times. She walked straight down the sidewalk, coming to rest about ten feet away from the figure. She could make out more detail now: it was definitely a man; but one of medium build. Nothing she couldn't handle, even without the Power.

When she was within five feet of him, she dropped the illusion and leapt at him. He let out a cry of surprise; Akane wrestled him to the ground. In the pool of the streetlamp their struggle had moved them into, Akane could see his face clearly: the face of her cousin.

"Kyosuke!" Akane yelled. "What the hell are you doing lurking around here? Wait, never mind, I have a fair idea."

She got off him, and he climbed to his feet. He gave her a terrified look.

"Please Akane, you can't let me know I'm here!" Kyosuke said.

Akane gave him a cockeyed look.

"So when exactly are you from?" Akane said. She blew on her coffee.

"November. The 17th, actually," Kyosuke said.

"Of this year?" Akane said. She never imagined herself having a conversation like this. Kyosuke had, of course, told her stories about his adventures in time. Akane had always assumed they were bullshit. She still wasn't sure he wasn't having her on.

"Yes, this year," Kyosuke nodded. He took a bite of his danish.

In spite of the odd situation, Akane realized that she was going to have a hell of a time falling asleep tonight. Two coffee shop visits in under two hours; but where did you take your cousin from the future for a little talk? Beef bowl?

"How could you be nostalgic for seven months ago?" Akane said.

"You wouldn't believe how much has changed…" Kyosuke said, then gasped. "No, I've said too much."

"You haven't said enough!" Akane said. "What's the big difference? In November we'll still be in high school, we don't graduate until next April."

Kyosuke said nothing, Akane looked at his reversed image in the meniscus of his coffee.

What could've gone wrong? Did someone die? Akane felt her chest go cold at the thought; the hair on her arms stood up. Who? Not Madoka!

Wait a second, Akane thought to herself… Kyosuke must know how her master plan ended up. She was planning to soon tell Madoka how she felt; could that be what shattered his world? In his present, were she and Madoka lovers?

"There's something I'm been meaning to talk to you about," Akane said. "About you and Hikaru."

Kyosuke looked up, there was incredible sadness in his eyes. It took Akane a moment to remember what she was going to say.

"You two do make a great couple," Akane said. "One of the best, in fact. I don't see why you can't be happ-"

"Shut up!" Kyosuke shouted.

Several people turned and stared at them. Akane marveled at the self-control of the people who didn't. Akane folded her arms and looked at her cousin. He was still in love with Madoka; even though she had obviously spurned him.

"It isn't settling, Kyosuke, she's a wonderful girl," Akane said.

"You don't know anything!" Kyosuke said through gritted teeth.

"I know that you're chasing rainbows," Akane said. Why couldn't he just accept defeat?

"I'd almost forgotten what you used to be like," Kyosuke said.

"Have I changed that much in the future?" Akane asked.

"You're deeper; better," Kyosuke said.

Love can do that, I guess, Akane thought. She always imagined that the love of a good woman would turn her into a better person. What was the Akane that this Kyosuke knew like? She felt that she was finally getting things right—she could only imagine how much farther along she would be in November.

After they finished their coffee, they went for a walk. The grey cloud-cover had finally lifted, and the stars shone crystal clear above them.

"So, is there anything more you want to see in the past?" Akane said.

"No, who knows who else I might run into," Kyosuke said. "I suppose it's about time to go home. I'm not looking forward to it, though."

Akane clenched her right hand into a fist. "Tell me, cuz, what was the weather like on the day you left?"

"Cold… Almost as cold as this. The leaves had fallen from the trees; I could smell someone burning them. It was a beautiful, peaceful day, this autumn of my youth," Kyosuke said.

Akane rolled her eyes; Kyosuke could probably go on for hours if no one stopped him. Akane came to a halt, her cousin walked a few feet in front of her. Quickly, she barreled forward and punched him square in the back of the head. He stumbled and fell, but vanished in a flash before he hit the concrete.

Akane cracked her knuckles; she'd enjoyed that a lot more than she felt was decent. Shimizu sensei wouldn't be pleased.

Aw, screw her.

- - - 

Friday.

Manami sat on the roof overlooking the courtyard where, on warmer days, the students ate their lunches. It was empty today, which gave Manami no small amount of relief. The buzz in the back of her mind was as persistent as ever, but quiet enough for her to ignore.

Her lunch today was curried chicken. She didn't used to like curry; she'd eaten it once when she was a toddler and never recovered. However she'd been exposed to the sensory information of Kurumi eating some, and tried some herself. She soon like curry as much as her sister did.

That really bothered it. Had she simply never given curry a chance; or had her experience with Kurumi rewired her brain so that she liked it? If the telepathy could change that, could it change her favorite color, her political views, even her sexuality?

She was no longer afraid of being overwhelmed by the thoughts of others; but she was afraid of her own personality eroding away, until there was nothing of herself left.

She hadn't mentioned this to Kazuya, because he had never known a world without telepathy; it's possible that there never was a "real" Kazuya, he was simply the sensory and cognitive programming he got from the people he was around.

This wouldn't have bothered Manami if she'd been a Buddhist; because this lack of self was what they strived for; but the Kasguas had never been Buddhist.

Manami saw two figures walk out of the school and into the warren of trees in the courtyard. They were too far aware to hear with her ears, but she could hear their words through their thoughts. It was weird because she heard the conversation take place in four different voices, and always two simultaneously: how each person sounded to themselves, and how the other heard them.

It was Komatsu and one of the girls from Hoshi; Manami remembered her name being Kaori. She wondered if she should be listening; but she didn't want to waste energy repressing their thoughts.

"Komatsu-san, this is going to be hard to hear; and I'm not the one who should be telling you; but Yuki doesn't have the decency or courage so I'm left without a choice," Kaori said.

"What're you talking about?" Komatsu said; confusion, dread.

"Yuki's only been going out with you because she wanted to make someone else jealous. It didn't work, and she doesn't have the guts to tell you," Kaori said.

In Komatsu's head was an odd emotion; Manami had no name for it, but it translated as: "I knew it was too good to be true". It was quickly repressed by one Manami recognized all too well: denial.

"You don't know what you're talking about! How dare you impugn Yuki's honor like that!" Komatsu shouted; but in his mind he was realizing that it was true.

"I'm sorry, Komatsu-san," Kaori said, her eyes began to tear up. Manami could feel her sinuses prickling. "When she told me what was going on, I was horrified."

No you weren't, you liar, Manami thought. You only started to feel guilty when you discovered that Komatsu wasn't the lummox you believed him to be.

Manami started as she recognized the vibe inside Kaori's head: she was in love with Komatsu!

"Why would she do something like that?" Komatsu said; Manami felt his eyes tearing up as well.

"Because she's so in love with this person that she can't think straight. She didn't realize what she was doing to you at first. She was trying to get you to stop liking her so you'd break up with her; but I guess you must really love her."

He did; and now all three of them were crying. Manami reached under her glasses to wipe her eyes.

"Who is this guy? Do I know him?" Komatsu said.

"Ummm..." Kaori said.

Manami sat up straight. She mumbled a swearword under her breath.

"Well there's something you need to know about Yuki. Do you know the reputation that girls, especially freshman, have at Hoshi's?" Kaori said.

"Yeah, they're all really slutty because there's no guys around," Komatsu said.

Manami thunked him in the head using telekinesis; he looked around, bewildered.

"Uh no, they're kinda... lesbians," Kaori said.

"What?!" Komatsu said. There was a flash of pornographic scenes through his head. Manami recognized one from a Cream Lemon LD cover she'd seen once.

"A counselor once explained it to me once, it has to do with their sexuality awakening when there's no men around. Usually by the time they graduate it wears off; but there are some who really are lesbians; and this girl and Yuki are of that sort," Kaori said.

Komatsu felt like he was standing in a shaft of sunlight. "It's Akane Kasuga, isn't it?"

Kaori was shocked. "Why, yes, it is... How did you..."

"We discussed this once. I guess I can't blame Yuki for wanting her; but... I can't forgive her for what she did," Komatsu said.

"Please, be gentle with her," Kaori said. "She feels the exact same thing you do; Akane doesn't love her, and never will. She already knows the pain you feel."

"I'm hold back as much as I can," Komatsu said. "But I can't make any promises."

"Don't hit her," Kaori said sternly. "I don't know if that's the kind of man you are-"

"Don't worry, I'm not. Besides, Yuki could break me in half," Komatsu said.

- - - 

Hatta found Komatsu sitting alone in one of the classrooms. An eerie silence filled the room. Komatsu sat in one of the student desks and stared out the window on the opposite side of the room.

In spite of himself, Hatta followed his gaze. It was a beautiful day; there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and the grass far beneath them was lush and green. It was impossible to believe that it was five degrees below freezing outside.

"Komatsu," Hatta finally said.

"Yeah?" Komatsu said, not shifting his gaze.

"We'd better go, they'll wonder where we are. It's been almost an hour since the last bell," Hatta said.

"They won't be waiting for us," Komatsu said. "I called off shooting for today."

"What?" Hatta gasped. "Why?"

"It's too cold; and I thought they could use the break," Komatsu said.

That made sense, Hatta thought. They'd been filming every day since they started.

"You went all the way over to Hoshi to tell them that?" Hatta asked.

"I was there for other reasons," Komatsu said.

Something clicked in Hatta's mind. Komatsu and Yuki had broken up; it was the only possible explanation. As Hatta looked at his friend's glassy stare he wasn't sure what to feel; he had his friend back... but at what cost?

"I got the film back from the lab," Hatta said. "We can start to cut it…"

"Take the day," Komatsu said. "Who knows when we'll get another break."

Several moments passed, but Komatsu didn't say anything more.

"Well, the cans are in the A/V room if you want to get started without me," Hatta said.

"Thanks, I just might," Komatsu said.

"Are you still going to Ryoushi's party tomorrow?" Hatta said.

"Of course," Komatsu said, allowing himself a smile. "He's the one that got me into film in the first place."

Half an hour later, Komatsu found himself in the A/V room. He wondered why he hadn't just gone home. The last thing he wanted to deal with was his stupid movie; he hadn't even begun to think how he was going to cut the Princess of Silence out of the second half.

He picked up the first canister and slammed it down next to the viewer. The label identified it as the first reel of footage they shot on the second day. This contained the opening shots of the movie; or that is, the first shots that appeared that weren't special effects. They were going to shoot those after everything else was done; he hadn't even begun to think how he was going to accomplish that.

He loaded the strip into the viewer and set the speed to real-time. This was the establishing shot of the hill on that distant planet where we first meet the ronin. Forty-three seconds in, he found a perfect start pointing; he rewound the film and slashed the forty-three second mark width-wise with a razor blade. He pulled the forty-two seconds worth of film out of the viewer and dropped them into the trash can.

He ran it through again: without a fade-in the screen leapt from black to a full-blown image. Komatsu liked the way it flowed; he seemed to cut through the nonsense. Just having the scene start immediately showed such audacity... No, Komatsu realized, not audacity: confidence. He was playing straight with the audience: "Hey you guys out there, the ones in the sticky seats. I've got a story to tell you, and I'm not going to pretend it's the best damn thing under the sun, and I don't think I'm the best thing since sliced bread, and neither should you. I got a story to tell, I think it's a good one, and if you give it a chance, I don't think you'll be disappointed."

Komatsu smiled. He made a few more cuts to quicken the pace; he used scotch tape to hold the new filmstrip together, and ran it. The slow pan on those green fields, up to our two figures in samurai gear, having their earnest conversation.

Komatsu cut the film at that point and rewound it onto the first reel, which he put into a small film case. He wrote "Scene 1, establishing" on the label and put it aside.

The next scene would be the close-ups between the two ronin; those were shot just yesterday, so they'd be in a complete different reel. Komatsu went to the last film case, the one against the wall, and found yesterday's date on it.

As he began to spool, cut, and tape, he couldn't remember the last time he'd felt so alive. Perhaps it was simply because he was keeping himself busy. What Yuki had done had hurt him—but life was still worth living; even with the pain.

After an hour of work, he spooled up and played the first five minutes of the movie. He was in awe: it actually looked like a movie. He'd made an entire movie in TAP Gun, but that had been videotape, edited inside a VCR. As good as even the best shots were, it still had the quality of a tape of someone's birthday party.

But this was film—the same kind of film that Apocalypse Now, Star Wars, and Ran were on. Without even realizing it, he had been inducted into a special guild: the brotherhood of filmmakers. It felt good to belong.

- - - 

Saturday.

Akane was using her boomerang to take out a Keese when the call came in.

"Can you get that?" Akane's mother called from the other room.

"Why don't we have an answering machine?!" Akane said in rage. Kazuya stared at her with predatory glee; rather, he stared at the red-and-gray controller in her hand.

Akane let it drop, and her brother caught it before it hit the ground. He flicked the reset button on the Famicom and her Hyrulian Adventure vanished in an instant.

Akane growled at him and rushed into the other room, where the phone rang for the fifth time. She picked up the receiver and muttered a hello.

"Greetings, is this Akane?" a familiar voice said.

"Oh, headmistress!" Akane said. "How can I... Wait a second, why are you calling me?"

Did principal's have a habit of calling their former students? Well, maybe if they were favored pupils; but Akane had never been one of those. Her teachers liked her; the disciplinary staff loathed her.

"I was wondering if you and your parents could come in and see me today, Akane. After school, naturally," the headmistress said.

"That's all right, I suppose..." Akane stopped. "Wait a second, you can't tell me what to do! That's a privilege you so blithely threw away."

Akane's father took the phone from her hand and gave her a dirty look.

"Excuse me, is this Akino-san? Ah yes, hello. I'm sorry about our daughter, she's obviously distraught..." her father said. "Oh? Is there any particular... Well, no it shouldn't be any trouble. All right, we'll see you then." he hung up the phone.

"Say hi to her for me while you're there," Akane said. "'cause I ain't going."

"Try to behave, for once in your life, Akane-chan" her father said. "Speaking of which, school starts in half an hour, shouldn't you be out of your pajamas by now?"

"Did she say why she wanted to talk to us?" Akane said.

"She said she wanted it to be a surprise," her father said.

Akane gave him a cockeyed look. "I have a bad feeling about this."

- - - 

Akane and her parents walked into the headmistress's office a little after one o'clock. The headmistress rose and bowed to her parents. She gave Akane a smile, which left her bewildered.

They exchanged vapid pleasantries, and discussed the weather; Akane couldn't help but squirm in her seat. She had no happy memories of this room—and it was disconcerting that she still had no idea why she was here.

"Now, the reason I've called you here is because I got a call from Shimizu-san yesterday," the headmistress said.

Akane's jaw fell open. Her parent's looked confused, but were too polite to interrupt.

"She was my teacher when I went to finishing school twenty years ago," the headmistress said. "So I know I can trust her judgment. She told me about Akane's progress in her class, and how she is the most earnest and capable student she's ever had," the headmistress said.

"I'm afraid there must be some mistake..." her father began. He stopped and stared at the carpet in confusion.

Akane's mother looked at her. "Akane, when were you enrolled in charm school?"

Akane sank back into her seat. "I'm still enrolled; I've been going since the beginning of this month."

"She's made quite an impression on Shimizu-san," the headmistress said. "Though Akane seems good at hiding her proficiency for ladylike behavior."

Akane noticed a cold glint in the headmistress's eyes. Shimizu-san had forced her hand; she doesn't want to do this. Whatever it was she was doing. Akane had a very bad feeling she knew what that thing was.

"How could you have gone to charm school without us knowing about it?" her mother asked.

"Where did you get the money?" her father asked.

"I've been working at a manga store after school three days a week, it pays the tuition," Akane said.

"Part-time jobs are against the rules, Akane," the headmistress said. "You're going to have to quit; it doesn't befit a Hoshi student."

"Excuse me, did you say-" her mother said.

"Yes, Shimizsu-san convinced me that I had been hasty in my decision.," the headmistress said.

Akane's mother grabbed her arm. "Honey, that's great!"

Akane's father patted her on the back.

Akane gripped the arm-rests of her chair and gave the headmistress a penetrating stare. "I have no interest in returning,"

"Akane, I know my actions must have hurt you," the headmistress said. "I acted in haste, and out of hurt feelings. What you said deserved nothing more than a reprimand. I was wrong, Akane, and I apologize," the headmistress said. "The students and teachers miss you terribly. I think it's time you came back."

Akane shook her head. Her head was swimming; this couldn't be happening. Her plan couldn't be falling apart. The headmistress did NOT just admit she was wrong and apologized.

"No. I'm not coming back—" Akane said.

"Akane!" her father said in a scolding tone. "Hoshi's is one of the best schools in the country. Do you know how hard it was to get you in here in the first place?"

"Even if I did want to come back, it's a month into this trimester. I just can't switch back," Akane said.

"That's a good point," the headmistress said. "You can transfer at the end of the trimester; at the end of summer vacation you'll come back here instead of Koryou. I can even get one of the students to give you the summer homework a little early so you can catch up."

"I didn't agree—" Akane started.

"I believe that's settled," her mother said. "We're glad to be back."

"The school just hasn't been the same without Akane," the headmistress said. Akane noted some regret in her voice.

- - - 

The wind picked up around 2:00, and screamed across Tokyo in strong gusts.

Akane, in the process of deciding what to wear at Ryoushi's party that night, looked out the window and saw the leafless branches of the trees violently shaking. She switched on the TV and allowed a weather report to reassure her that a hurricane wasn't imminent.

It rattled the windows of Komatsu's bedroom; causing him to look up from the chroma key manual he was reading. He drew the shade and watched as the wind caused the trees in his front yard to shake, and tossed a neighbor's trash can down the street.

Just across the street from where Akane was watching the news, Manami sat alone in her room and tried to keep her mind from drifting to the thoughts of others.

Kyosuke ignored the howling sound coming from his window and continued to concentrate on a difficult physics problem. Not for the first time, he despaired of his chances to get into a good university.

Hatta and Yuki, though ten miles apart, were so engrossed in the Yuri manga they were reading that they didn't even notice the tempest outside.

Ayukawa lay floating in her bathtub, unaware of the wind storm. She enjoyed being able to breathe without obstruction. She felt the most relaxed she'd felt in a long time. She thought of the man she had fallen in love with—and regretted that he didn't have the courage to admit he felt the same.

Hikaru sat at her bedroom desk; she looked up at the lonely sound of the howling wind, and reflected on the horrible emptiness that had taken hold of her.

The wind blew on, as it had for aeons, oblivious to the ones it had touched.

- - - 

Akane rang the doorbell and turned to the mob that stood behind her. "Don't be shocked if she appears a bit frail; it was a pretty nasty bug."

Madoka's house was the last stop on their cross-city tour before they made their way towards Ryoushi's beach house.

Kyosuke and Komatsu were better dressed than usual, their hair far neater than Akane had ever seen it; impressive considering how windy it was. On the other hand, Hatta was his usual slobbish self. Manami wore a blue dress with a low hemline and a high neckline. Kurumi wore a black number that left little to the imagination.

Hikaru wore a sleeveless blouse with a black micro skirt. She hadn't said much on their journey, and had responded coldly to any attempt to bring her into the conversation. Akane hoped she would perk up now that Madoka was with them.

Kaori, who had begged Akane to take her along, wore a white dress that was almost as conservative as Manami's.

The door opened and Akane gasped at the sight. Madoka was back in full-force. The bloom was back on her cheeks, the sheen had returned to her hair, the cloudiness had faded from her eyes, leaving them crystal clear. Her face contained one of those smiles that destroyed any doubts Akane could ever have about her sexuality.

"It's great to see you all," Madoka said in a musical voice. She stepped back and motioned for everyone to enter.

"We can't stay long, it's a long, and cold, train ride out to the shore," Kyosuke said.

"Oh, don't worry about that. In light of this momentous occasion, and the weather, I ordered a limo to take us out there and back again," Madoka said.

There were gasps of amazement from everyone in the mob.

"Ayukawa-san, you are the best friend I've ever had. Marry me!" Komatsu said.

Akane felt her right-hand gripping into a fist. She noticed that Kyosuke had done the same. She let it pass, and Madoka didn't even deign to respond to his comment.

"Sit down, I'll make us some tea while we wait," Madoka said.

Hikaru hadn't said a single word as they made the tea. As it boiled, she simply started at the counter with a strange expression on her face.

"You look much better, Hikaru," Madoka said. "It looks like the virus didn't hit you as hard as it hit me."

Hikaru simply hummed an acknowledgement and drummed her fingers on the counter.

This simply was like her, Madoka thought. Hikaru was capable of getting enthusiastic about anything. Could she still be sick?

"Are you feeling all right, Hikaru?" Madoka asked.

"I'm feeling just well, Ayukawa," she replied.

Madoka felt her chest grow cold; Hikaru hadn't called her by her family name since kindergarten.

She just stared at Hikaru for a few minutes; she wasn't sure what to say. It occurred to Madoka that something else was wrong, but with her. There had been fights between them in the past too; but they always ended with them both admitting that they still loved each other; and nothing could stop that.

So why didn't Madoka want to pry any deeper? Why didn't she talk plainly to her friend and ask what was bugging her. What could be so terrible that it could end their friendship?

Madoka felt her stomach knot up—and for once she fully allowed herself to accept that something, or someone, had entered their lives and had come between them. She'd known this was coming, with the same sense of inevitably she felt about her parent's death. She just didn't think it would've happened this soon.

So Madoka didn't say anything more while they were in the kitchen together; and they shared scarcely a word for the rest of the night.

- - - 

"Do you know anyone who wasn't invited to this party?" Hatta asked.

"Nuh-uh," Kurumi said. "Even the freshmen were invited, and they've only been at our school for a few weeks."

"It shouldn't be surprising," Ayukawa said. "Jun Ryoushi isn't a member of any clique, and yet he's part of all of them."

Manami felt feelings of goodwill and tenderness from everyone in the car, except for Akane, who felt a little bemused. Manami didn't think it was possible for anyone to be so universally liked; but apparently they all through as fondly of Ryoushi as she did.

Manami remembered the first time she'd met Ryoushi; she'd been sitting in the courtyard of school last fall, working on a poetry project for her Japanese class. She hadn't been very good at it.

He'd been walking by, and mentioned that he couldn't help noticing the syllable markings on her paper, and asked if she needed any help. Over the course of the next hour, he'd taught her how better to express herself. She ending up getting an A on the poem, and it was entered into a regional competition. It'd ended up in 17th place, but that was out of 500, so Manami didn't feel that bad about it.

She hadn't picked up the ink stone and brush after that, though. She'd always feared that without Ryoushi to help her, she'd never be able to write another poem. She remembered the feeling of peace writing this first poem had given her; she wondered if she could ever feel that stillness inside her again, with the thoughts of others within her.

Which reminded her... She had met Ryoushi in the hallway the other day. She had decided to strike up a conversation with him, RSVP in person as it were. She hadn't managed to feel any thoughts coming from it all. It didn't feel like Akane's mind did; where she could feel the presence of Akane's thoughts but couldn't 'decode' them. It was as if Ryoushi hadn't been there at all.

The limo drove on into the night.

- - - 

The entire school must be here, Komatsu thought as she looked around the ballroom. Then he realized that that might be literally true. Ryoushi seemed to be a friend to everyone.

"Hey Komatsu," a female voice said.

Komatsu turned around and saw the voice belonged to Kaori. Now that she was out of that heavy coat, he saw that her dress exposed her shoulders. He had once heard that men got hot seeing naked hemispheres of flesh; which meant that men not only found breasts arousing, but also knees, elbows, and shoulders. At the moment, Komatsu was inclined to agree.

"Hey Inoue-san, great party, huh?" he asked.

"Yeah, this wine is great," she said, indicating her glass. "It has this wonderful cherry flavor, and I can't even taste the alcohol."

"That's because it's cherry Kool-Aid," Komatsu said.

"It is?" Kaori said, examining the glass. "Was I supposed to mix this with vodka? I didn't see a bottle."

"Ryoushi believes people can have fun without alcohol," Komatsu said. "It sounds lame, but he's managed to have some of the best parties on earth. I'm not quite sure how he pulled that off—but I'm just happy to be invited."

"Hey, would you care to dance the next number with me?" Kaori asked.

"Oh... I didn't think you danced with guys," Komatsu said.

"What?" Kaori said, giving him an odd look.

"I mean, you came with Akane. So I assumed the two of you were... well, you know," Komatsu trailed off.

"I just wanted to come to this party, and Akane wasn't taking anyone, so she decided to help me out," Kaori said, and then laughed.

"Oh, well, very well then," Komatsu said.

Almost as if on cue, the current song ended. Kaori offered Komatsu her arm. He took it and walked out into the center of the floor. The next song started, some slow number by Kanako Wada.

After a few moments, Komatsu got the courage to look his partner in the eyes. She looked beautiful; her smooth soft skin, her sleek black hair done up in a ponytail.

Their glances met, then broke in a bout of self-consciousness.

Half-way through the song, Kaori leaned forward and whispered into Komatsu's ear. "You know Komatsu, the real reason I came to this party... was you."

"What?" Komatsu hissed. His heart leapt, but he quickly beat the feeling of elation down. He'd fallen for this once before.

"I've enjoyed working with you on the film," Kaori said. "I love that giddiness you get when you're working on that film; when you have that light dancing in your eyes."

Yuki had never said anything like to him, Komatsu thought. Come to think of it, he couldn't remember her ever complimenting him on anything specific, ever. It had always just been "you're a great guy", "you're a wonderful boyfriend", "I can't believe you ate the whole thing."

"I don't know what to say," Komatsu said. He hadn't ever thought of Kaori in that way. He'd only ever known her when he was Yuki. She's the one who'd introduced them, when they were looking for cast and crew.

"After what Yuki did to you, I can understand that you feel like you can never trust a woman again," Kaori said. "But I want to know you better, Komatsu. I want you to be part of my life."

The song ended, and the two of them parted. Kaori reached into her purse and pulled out a slip of paper. She handed it to Komatsu, he saw that a phone number had been written on it. She'd prepared it beforehand; perhaps she really did only come here for him.

"I can wait until you're over Yuki," Kaori said. "If you ever need something to talk to, I'll be there."

She gave him a tender smile and walked away.

Komatsu looked down at the slip of paper; he couldn't believe that just yesterday he'd had his heart ripped out. He had begun to wonder if all women were as cold and manipulative underneath as Yuki was. Then he realized the truth: Yuki was that way because she was a bitch, not because she was a woman.

Komatsu folded the piece of paper in two and placed it in his pocket and allowed himself to grin.

- - - 

Akane was wondering if she had the nerve to ask Madoka to dance when she heard a tapping noise over the PA system. She turned and saw a guy about her age standing on a table. He had a microphone in his hand, which he was tapping.

"Is this thing on?" he asked jokingly. A few people laughed.

Akane felt something like an itch in the back of her mind. She had the strangest feeling that she'd seen this guy before; and yet she recognized neither his features or his voice.

"Hi folks, are we having a good time?" Ryoushi asked.

The partygoers cheered in response. Ryoushi smirked and bowed in appreciation.

"I'm glad you all decided to join me here tonight, because I have something important to say; though I truly wish I didn't have to say it," Ryoushi said.

He sat down on the edge of the table. "I've thrown parties like this once every season for the past three years; entire classfuls of people have come and gone. It saddens me to have to tell you that this party is going to be my last."

Sounds of dismay echoed from every corner of the room. Akane saw that her three cousins were in wide-eyed shock.

"My parents have been transferred overseas, and I'll be gone by the first of May," Ryoushi said.

Kurumi was in tears, Manami's face showed the strain of repressing deep feelings of sorrow, Kyosuke continued to look shocked.

"I consider everyone in this room my friend, and I love you all dearly. If it was up to me, I'd never leave, but my time here is over. Everything ends, my friends, but every ending is a beginning in disguise. I know it's tempting to cling to the past; and we had some wonderful times together, but we can't just live off our old memories. If we did so, we'd be cheating ourselves. We need to move on, and make every day better than the one before it," Ryoushi said.

A guy in a grey jacket walked up to the table and whispered something in Ryoushi's ear.

"What? Really? You're kidding me," Ryoushi said, then seemed to notice he was still on the PA. "Our friend Baienno has just informed me that the temperature outside is at least 60 degrees, so I suggest we all move out of doors and onto the beach!" Ryoushi said.

Akane rushed to the nearest door and threw it open. A warm breeze blew past her, ruffling her hair. She walked out, mouth agape. It must've risen 20 degrees within the last hour.

"I heard about this on the news," Kyosuke said. "There was some blast of tropical air coming, but it wasn't supposed to hit us until tomorrow afternoon."

Komatsu yanked his sports coat off. "The cold snap is over!" he shouted.

Akane kicked off her shoes, hiked up her skirt, and ran over sand-covered terrain to the shore.

- - - 

By 2:00, Kyosuke and his friends were the only people left on the beach. Even Ryoushi had gone inside to go to sleep. Everyone else had to catch the last train; but the limo service Madoka had used was available twenty-four hours a day.

Just after midnight the temperature had settled down into the fifties, so they had gathered driftwood and made a fire. They'd sat around it for the past two hours and talked and told jokes. Around one o'clock they'd started to tell stories. Hatta was in the process of finishing his.

"...and so the women pulls out his can of mace and yells at the guy running towards her 'Get back!'. The guy says 'look lady, I'm sorry I had to push you off the road like that, but there was a guy sitting in your backseat, and he had a knife.'

"So naturally the woman doesn't believe him, so she chases the guy off and finds a payphone and calls the police. But as she's waiting for them, her curiosity gets the better of her, and—"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, we get the point," Ayukawa said. "She goes to the car and finds the body of the murderer in the back, impaled on his own knife. I've heard it a thousand times before."

Komatsu was sitting on his back, his mind engulfed in the stars that burned high above them. He was so absorbed that he didn't notice that Ayukawa was talking to him until Akane nudged him with her foot.

"What? I'm sorry, I missed that," Komatsu said as he sat up.

"I said it's your turn. Everyone else has told a story. I would prefer it if it didn't involve yet another woman being stalked by a bloodthirsty murderer with a knife," Ayukawa said.

"Or ghost stories," Kyosuke said. "Those really scare Ayukawa."

Ayukawa shot him a dirty look. Hikaru gave a chortle that Komatsu could've sworn sounded mean-spirited. Akane looked bewildered.

"All right then. My story is going to be a little different, it's not really a campfire story, but..." Komatsu said. He took a deep breath. "All right, let's begin."

A long time ago there lived a Shogun who had a son who was more interested in painting pictures and being friendly with girls than doing his duty as a samurai.

One day the Shogun, who was by that time an old man, met a peasant who he sees fight off a horde of brigands. As the old man watches the battle, he wonders why his son can't be more like this peasant. The old man is shocked to discover that the peasant looks almost exactly like his son.

The old man has the retainers bring the peasant before him, and he informs the peasant that he has come up with a plan. Since the peasant looks like his son, and has natural martial abilities, he will train him in the ways of the samurai and pretend that the peasant is his son. When he chooses to retire from the shogunate, the peasant would take his place.

("But what about the real son?" Hikaru asked. "Did he just kill him?"

"I'm getting to that," Komatsu said.)

A few days later, the prince was captured while he slept by several of the Shogun's elite guard. He was taken to one of the old man's more secluded estates out in the country. He was then forced to wear a sack with eye and mouth holes cut out of it. He was never allowed to take the sack off, even to clean his face or hair.

("Ewwwww," Kurumi said.)

Now I know this seems cruel, but the prince loved this. The country life was peaceful and provided him with plenty of inspiration for his paintings. Now that his father had given up on him being a warrior, he was happier than he had ever been before.

Meanwhile, back in the capitol, the peasant was undergoing extensive combat training under his father's own instructor. He made tremendous progress, and the instructor admitted that the peasant may be even more skilled than the old man was in his prime.

Now one of the old man's vassals wasn't at all happy with this situation. He was a real blue-blood and he would never allow a mere peasant to lord over his country. So he made plans to assassinate the boy and bring the real prince back from the country.

However, just as he was about to put his plans into motion, the old man's chief scribe stayed his hand with an incredible revelation. Not only did the two boys look alike; they had the same birthday. The two boys were twins!

The scribe and vassal go to the shogun with their discovery, and he is befuddled. He can't think of any way that this situation could happen: how could one of his sons have ended up as a peasant? The shogun decides to seek out the boy's nanny, who now lived in a far-off kingdom.

When the shogun finally finds the nanny, she informs him that the truth is even more complicated: the boys are twins, but neither are his son!

You see, the shogun's wife had died in childbirth. (Manami sniffled a little) But she had given birth not to a son, but a daughter!

One of the old man's most trusted advisors, now long since dead, knew that the old man and his wife truly loved each other. He knew that it was very unlikely that the shogun would ever marry again, so there would be no prince to take up the throne when the shogun passed on.

So this advisor traded the daughter for a son of a peasant family. The peasant's sister was the shogun's real child!

The shogun is livid and returns home. He has the peasant imprisoned, and sends several of his soldiers to bring the "prince" back from his country estate.

He then goes into town to visit his daughter. He meets his daughter, a peasant woman who had just been engaged to be married. His daughter is a gentle and happy young woman, who comported herself with decency and respect.

The old man can't bring himself to tell his daughter the truth; for, you see, his daughter has managed to find true happiness. The prince was sensitive and too easily depressed; whereas the peasant had a steely resolve and ambition, but neither of his "sons" were ever truly happy.

The old man's successor surpassed him in all things. The new shogun was remembered for centuries to come as a capable political leader and military commander. He was a polymath: able to conquer on the battlefield, but also capable of bringing about peace and prosperity without resorting to war. He was also, I might note, one heck of a painter.

Komatsu let out a long sigh. That story had taken a lot out of him. It had grown as he was telling it.

"That was a good story," Hikaru said.

"Indeed," Manami said.

"Why don't you make a movie out of that, instead of that stupid tokusatsu thing you're working on?" Ayukawa said.

"It's just a story," Komatsu said. "It's not a movie. I mean, there's no camera movements, transition effects, allusions to other films..."

Komatsu stopped; something clicked into place in his mind. Movies were stories; everything else was just the way the story was told. The story was paramount; what he wanted to do was let people see the world the way he saw it. All this technical jargon and referencing other people's movies just got in the way.

Komatsu felt a steely resolve of his own; once he was done with the 47 Ronin, he was going to abandon the cheesy crap all together. His next movie was going to be heartfelt; he was going to tell a story, damn it. If he made something he could care about, then other people would care too.

It was the literary golden rule; and it was his key to greatness.

- - - 

By dawn, Akane was the only one left awake. She stirred the fire with a stick and looked at her sleeping friends.

This night had reminded her of another one, the night after Spring Day, more than a month ago. She and her friends had sat in Madoka's living room, listened as her delicate hands played the piano; then they had talked long into the night about the things they never seemed to talk about at any other time. But this time the boys had been along: and they had all added something to the proceedings.

Akane looked at the red clouds floating just above the golden horizon. There were moments in life that were nothing short of perfect. Nothing you could add could make them better, anything you took away would lessen them.

Akane took a deep breath of cool, salt air. These were moments where you took account of everything that had happened to you, and found a positive sum. Life had led me to this perfect moment; so everything that I endured was worth it.

Akane Kasuga, seventeen years old, experienced one of those perfect, golden moments, as she watched the sun rise that morning in late April.

End Part Three

To be concluded in Part Four.

Since I can't take credit where it isn't deserved, some of the prose stylings

in this chapter were heavily derived from Alfred Bester's "The

Demolished Man", which I highly recommend. Even if it does make this

story look like a piece of excrement.


	4. Chapter 4

Kimagure Orange Road

Spring Wonder

Chapter 4

Kyosuke Kasuga awoke on the morning of the last day of school before Golden Week to find a naked Yuusaku in his bed.

Kyosuke wondered if he was dreaming. He closed his eyes and let his head drop back onto the pillow. After a moment he opened his left eye—but there was no change. His rival for Hikaru's affections was still laying next to him in his birthday suit.

Kyosuke's eyes goggled as Yuusaku's ponderously opened. He looked up at Kyosuke and smiled.

"Good morning, lover," he said in a sultry voice.

Kyosuke's panic vanished as he felt a sense of deja vu. He'd had this trick played on him before.

"All right Akane, this isn't funny!" Kyosuke shouted.

Kyosuke heard the click of a doorknob turning, and glanced to the doorway, expecting to see his giggling sisters. Instead, he saw his cousin Akane.

"Kyosuke, I was wondering if I could borrow..." Akane gasped. It took her a while to regain her composure. "Kyosuke... I, I had no idea."

"You don't need to hide it anymore, Kyosuke my love," Yuusaku said. "What we did last night was beautiful, and nothing to be ashamed of." A smile crossed his lips and a blush came to his cheeks. "I want the whole world to know of our love."

Kyosuke's glance rapidly cycled between the two of them. Had he hit his head and wound up in another parallel universe? And if his counterpart was gay, did that mean that part of him was gay as well?

"This can't be happening! This can't be happening!" Kyosuke said, grabbing his head.

Suddenly he felt his mind clearing; in his panic he hadn't even recognized the familiar fogginess that had enveloped it. He turned to the figure laying in bed next to him, and found Kurumi in a tube top; she was grinning at him.

"Impressive, eh?" Akane said. "I've been working on projecting the images onto other people."

Kyosuke did his best to swallow his rage. "That's just what we need, to have your Power be even more destructive."

"I just thought you could use a wake-up call. You've been late to school the last couple of days," Akane said. She then adopted a devious smile. "Not to say I didn't enjoy that."

"Yes, well, you made me squirm. Enjoy your little victory," Kyosuke mumbled.

"Actually, I consider my victory the two hours of sleep you aren't going to get," Akane said over her shoulder as she strode out the door.

Kyosuke looked at the clock, and unleashed a litany of curse words.

Akane's voice echoed from down the hallway: "I love the smell of yaoi in the morning. Smells like... victory."

- - - 

Today we determine if the high culture stuck, Akane thought as she walked through the museum's turnstile. She looked at the faint fluorescent stamp on the back of her right hand and thought how gauche it was. This was how they marked people at Tokyo Disneyland.

"I haven't been here since last summer," Madoka gushed. "I've heard they have some wonderful new exhibits."

" Indubitably," Akane said. Madoka gave her a strange look. Damn, Akane thought, crash and burn.

"Uh, let's go," Akane said, motioning towards one of the escalators.

The first room was domestic and other Asian artwork. Akane started to feel nervous at she looked at each of the woodblock prints. It wasn't just performance anxiety either—there was always something about this kind of artwork that gave her the willies.

Everything was off-kilter in these woodblocks, and was drawn in minimalist detail. The artists also gave over a lot of the picture to empty space; for instance the famous woodblock of people cross a bridge showed plenty of the river underneath them.

Akane had always found a crowded page more satisfying. She liked some of the renaissance works, like Raphael's "The School at Athens", which you could stare at for five minutes and still be able to find something you'd never noticed before. The woodblocks centered on one thing; whereas the Renaissance paintings tried to convey a greater canvas of human existence.

If Raphael had done that woodblock, you wouldn't have just seen the people crossing the bridge and the fisherman in the river, you would've seen kids playing with tops on one shore, and a fish-market on the other. And every inch would've been crammed with detail; individual waves in the river would be seen. Of course Akane suspected that the minimalist quality had something to do with the means of reproduction: you can only expect so much detail to come off a woodblock.

"Had enough?" Madoka asked.

Akane looked up in surprise; Madoka actually sounded bored. Suddenly Akane didn't feel so bad. She nodded and they walked into the next room.

The next room was Japanese calligraphy. Akane had to stifle a yawn. She did have to admire the penmanship (brushmanship? brushwomanship?) though. After practicing some at charm school she knew all too well that her skills were lacking.

She felt the bile simmering in her stomach as she thought of charm school. It was amazing that she was able to think of anything else: that confrontation had taken place only two hours ago. It had easily been one of the most momentous of her life.

"Give me a typewriter any old day," Akane said to Madoka.

Madoka chortled and then looked ashamed for doing so. "You're bad, Akane."

They walked into the next room, which was huge and had a fountain made of cut and polished blue stone. There were benches set up against each wall. The smell of fried noodles was in the air. Akane suddenly realized that they had wandered into the concession area.

"You know, that fountain is the most impressive thing I've seen so far," Madoka said.

Akane smiled. "We're a couple of rubes, aren't we?"

"I can't pretend to be impressed by mediocrity," Madoka said. "It would be dishonest."

Suddenly all of the tension flowed out of Akane's body. She didn't have to put up a false front; this was the same Madoka she'd been friends with for the past month. She didn't have to pretend to be someone else; Madoka liked her just fine as she was.

"C'mon," Akane said. "I'll buy you a Vita-pup."

After they finished their crushed ice confections, Madoka excused herself to the ladies room. Akane sat on one of the benches and watched the burbling of the fountain.

She'd told Shimizu everything; how she'd gotten expelled, why she enrolled in charm school... Shimizu hadn't gotten angry until Akane told her that she didn't buy what she was teaching.

It was amazing to see Shimizu lose her composure; even when she complimented someone there was a ting of harshness in her voice. In this case, she had actually begun to shriek.

"You're the reason society is collapsing," Shimizu had shrieked. "Just like all the other girls, you're giving away your birthright to become a second-rate man!"

Akane was amazed at her own composure, she'd just sat there, giving her former mentor a very cold look and saying nothing.

"Ready for more?" Madoka said.

Akane nodded and rose from the bench. They walked into the next room. Finally, something interesting to look at.

Akane found herself engrossed by La Fornarina; she liked girls who weren't popsicle sticks. That was one of the reasons she'd never even considered going out with Yuki. Madoka, like the woman in this painting, had curves all over the place.

Akane was ashamed of her thoughts the moment they crossed her synapses. Surely she wasn't that shallow; she didn't love Madoka just for her body. There was other reasons she didn't like Yuki: the fact that she was needy and earnest. She didn't seem to have an ironic bone in her body.

Akane thought about that for a long time; was the only reason she didn't like Yuki because she wasn't Madoka? Or was it just that Madoka happened to have all the qualities that Akane wanted in a woman?

Which had come first: the ideal woman, or Madoka Ayukawa?

Akane and Madoka drifted around the room, taking in each painting. Akane felt like she was lost in time; it felt she had been in this room forever, but she wasn't even close to being bored.

The next room showed a giant drop in quality. Akane looked at the plaque on the north wall and understood why.

**Young Artist Competition Winners**

**1974-**

Akane felt like skipping this room until the very last picture on the south wall caught her eye. She knew it was the last because of the empty quarter of a wall to the right of it.

It was a painting of a field of tall grass, there was a beautiful blue sky above it with puffy white clouds in them. It was so perfectly portrayed that Akane could almost smell the grass.

"Ordinary Day, winner 1985," Madoka read from the plaque.

Akane looked down at the plaque and gasped.

"What is it?" Madoka said.

"I know her!" Akane said. "We used to go to school together. I didn't know she was an artist, though." Who knew that Yuki had that in her?

"I'd like to meet her," Madoka said. "If you two still know each other."

"Oh, I think we're going to be seeing a lot of each other," Akane said.

Akane knew that with certainty now, because of the last thing Shimizu would ever say to her. Just before Akane left, she had asked Shimizu to rescind her recommendation to the headmistress of Hoshi's.

Shimizu had said, in the nicest possible voice: "No. Consider it my vengeance."

- - - 

As the clock struck eleven on the night before the first day of golden week, Akane found herself alone. In other years this night had been one of drunken revelry—but not this year.

The (other) Kasugas were in Okinawa; Komatsu and Hatta were probably cutting film (or more likely Hatta was cutting, and Komatsu was out with Kaori, his new girlfriend.) Hikaru wasn't returning anyone's calls. That would've left just Akane and Madoka, and they were already spending so much time together this week that they decided to take a breather.

Akane walked out of the steamy bathroom and flung open one of her bedroom windows. A blissfully cool breeze wafted in, carrying the sound of far-off traffic with it.

After she slipped between the sheets a few minutes later she could hear her heart beating; it was faster than normal. She was so excited about tomorrow; she was finally going to tell Madoka how she felt. By this time tomorrow, she could be living in paradise.

In spite of this excitement, Akane found herself drifting off. She felt that she was floating, and found herself flying under the district of Tokyo that she had come to think of as home. Beneath her the rooftops of buildings basked in the sunlight; grass shone greener than she had ever seen it, and the asphalt of the sidewalks and roads sparkled. In that moment, urban planning became an art form.

That wasn't all, though, Akane found that she was able to see through the roofs of the houses, and could hear the conversations that occurred hundreds of feet beneath her.

In the (other) Kasuga's living room, Kyosuke and Hikaru sat on the couch and gazed into each other eyes. Akane could tell just by looking at her cousin that something had changed. His reluctance to act and indecisiveness had been washed away; tempered and eventually removed by his intimacy with the headstrong and impulsive Hikaru. Akane also perceived a maturity in Hikaru that had no doubt been derived from Kyosuke's cautiousness.

Akane banked to the right and thundered across town. She stared at the utter blue skyline; even though it was noon on a cloudless day, she could still see the stars. She screamed over Hoshi's at speeds exceeding mach-one, but she was able to catch the volleyball team practicing, and saw Yuki standing with an easel on the hill overlooking the field. She painted a beautiful picture of the star-studded noon sky with strong and certain brushstrokes.

Downtown a film festival was taking place; Komatsu and his beautiful wife arrived in a limo, and Hatta lead a cadre of bodyguards who kept the reporters and fans at bay. Komatsu gave the adoring crowd a goofy smile and made his way, arm in arm with Kaori, into the theatre.

This was all interesting, but why was she holding back? There was a place she wanted to be; the desire to go there electrified every fiber of her being. Yet, at the same time, she was afraid. Was she afraid that she would somehow find fault in it? That it wouldn't live up to expectation? (that she would wake up?)

Akane banked again and set her course for Madoka's house. As she approached she adjusted her altitude, coming to a helicopter-like hover when she finally arrived. The grass in Madoka's front yard shook violently in the powerful wind from Akane's flight. The wind died the moment that Akane's feet touched the ground. She made a half-hearted attempt to brush her high-altitude wind-swept hair with her fingers; no need to bother, Madoka said she liked her with wild hair.

Akane walked up the front path and unlocked the door with her key. No need to knock; it was her house too, now. She walked into the foyer and called: "Honey, I'm home."

Akane walked into the living room and found Madoka sitting at her father's grand piano. Madoka stared at the half-filled sheet of music on the stand, tapping her pen against her lips.

Akane kissed Madoka on the forehead and sat next to her. Madoka managed to give her a smile, but still looked engrossed in what she was doing. Akane thought that she should be put off by Madoka's lack of affection, but she loved Madoka when she was like this; the scrunched up face, her eyes steely with determination.

"I just can't seem to get it right, Akane-chan," Madoka said. "I'm just not sure how I'm supposed to feel about this piece."

"Maybe you need to take some time away from it," Akane said. "Come back with a refreshed and more limber mind."

Madoka capped her pen and placed it under the incomplete piece of sheet music. She placed her arms around Akane and kissed her, tenderly, on the mouth.

"You always seem to know just what I need, Akane-chan," Madoka said.

"Would you like to go for a walk, Madoka-chan?" Akane said, taking her lover's hand. "It's a beautiful day. The sun's in Aries."

Madoka gave her a bright smile, light seemed to dance behind her eyes. "I would love to, Akane-chan."

On that day, with the sun and starts shining brightly overhead in the utter blue sky, Akane and Madoka walked through green fields, hand in hand.

I didn't know what love was, til I looked into your eyes. I didn't know what life was, until I felt your tender touch. I didn't know who I was, until I came to know you. There is no greater reward in life, than waking up next to your every morning. Our love shines brighter than the sun, and will continue to burn long after the sun has gone out. We are complete; we are one, now and forever.

Akane was stirred awake by the scent of fresh morning air. She opened her eyes and smiled. She couldn't have imagined a sweeter dream. She sat up and stared out the window at the sky that was slowly brightening with the dawn.

In that moment Akane thought of how far she had come, and in so short a time. She realized that the world she dreamt of was not only possible—but inevitable. That world was so close to coming into being that Akane felt she could reach out and touch it.

- - - 

On that April evening, long ago, the clouds gathered above Tokyo in anemic wisps. The sun seemed more reluctant to set each night. In the air was a pungent whisper of freshly sprouted leaves, and newly mowed lawns.

Akane's reddish-brown hair was coiffed into a ponytail by a clip of polished jade. She wore a low-cut blue dress with ruffles, and carried an inimitable smile upon her lips.

Madoka's raven-black hair hung loose, and the curves of her body were contained in a dress of black silk. The dress was accented by a bracelet of burnished silver on her right wrist.

The two of them had just left the Shibuya train station and were making their way to the opera house. Akane had bought two tickets to Don Giovanni almost a month ago. She knew nothing of the opera, but its composition credit caught her eye: Mozart. Akane suspected that would impress Madoka, and spent a month's allowance on the two tickets.

It had been a leap of faith, as Akane hadn't even been expelled from Hoshi at that point. Akane had expected to eat the tickets at some point, but was ecstatic to discover that her plan had come to fruition.

They had arrived more than half-an-hour early, and were shown to their purple-fabric lined seats. Far below them stood the stage, with a long, heavy velvet curtain posing in the hot spotlights.

The two of them exchanged the comfortable, idle words that pass between two friends who have nothing to prove to the other; conversation emblematic of a friendship that could last a lifetime.

The half-hour passed quickly for the two friends, and the curtain rose. In spite of her best efforts, and even with the subtitles, Akane found herself becoming bored.

After what seemed an eternity, but couldn't have been more than forty-five minutes, Akane started to feel drowsy and laid back in her seat. She swiveled over and looked at Madoka. Madoka was enthralled, and there was a light smile on her lips. She seemed to be enjoying every moment of this. It made her beautiful, Akane thought, that giddiness about her. It made Akane lover her all the more.

She looked at Madoka's hand resting on the arm rest next to her. She felt like taking it in her own; she managed to swallow the urge with some difficulty. It wasn't appropriate; not yet. But soon, before the clock struck midnight that day, it would be.

- - - 

Akane and Madoka had spent the last hour burning their tongues with curry; and were now salving them with ice cream on Madoka's back porch.

The wind blew from the north, it wasn't tepid enough to be warm, but cool enough to be brisk. Akane found the breeze refreshing after the hours cramped in the stuffy opera house and the muggy curry joint.

She looked over to Madoka, who was lying back on an identical lawn recliner. She gazed contentedly at the stars. There could be no more perfect moment, Akane thought. Her ears were filled with the sound of her heart beating rapidly.

"Ayukawa-" Akane started.

"I think it's time you started calling me Madoka," Madoka said. "It seems only fair, I've been calling you Akane since we first met."  
"Well that's different, it's to differentiate me from that chowder head cousin of mine," Akane said.

Madoka just smiled. "In any case, I would like it if you called me Madoka."

"All right then... Madoka," Akane said.

How should she start? 'There's something I've been meaning to talk to you about'? Hell no, that's the sort of opener you used when you're asking your boss for a raise. This was a sensitive topic to broach, but it's also one of passion and intimacy. All right then, there was only way to do it.

Akane sat up, curling her legs beneath her; she clasped her hands together and faced Madoka. "Madoka, I'm in love with you." Akane imagined she saw surprise in Madoka's eyes, but it was too dark to tell.

"I've loved you from the moment we first met. At first I thought it might just be infatuation, but as we got to know each other, the feeling just kept hitting me harder and harder," Akane said, she started to feel sweat bead on her brow.

"I can't stop thinking about you; and every time I do, I feel a profound sense of peace and joy. These last few weeks have meant more to me than you could possibly imagine.

"I'm sorry I have to broach the subject, since I wish we could just go on being friends, but I can't ignore how I feel. You need to know, if only just because it wouldn't be fair to continue living the lie. This may be presumptuous of me, but I think that I saw you feeling the same type of joy being with me that I felt being with you. I'm betting that you feel the same way. If that's true..." Akane trailed off. She couldn't think of anything more to say; then she realized there was nothing more she could say.

Madoka sat still for a very long moment, her gaze downcast. After what seemed like an eternity, she looked up and locked gazes with Akane.

"Akane... " Madoka began. "I did and do consider you a friend. I would even go so far as to say that I love you... but not in that way."

In the years to come, Akane would alternately remember feeling surprise or depression when Madoka spoke those words. In truth, however, she felt nothing but a dim sense of confusion.

"What? Why? Why don't you love me?" Akane sputtered. She felt an impulsive need to keep talking, but Madoka quickly cut her off.

"You need to understand that it isn't you, Akane. I could never be happy with another woman; no matter how special she was," Madoka said.

And then it happened, the forbidding facade that was Akane Kasuga's personality collapsed, and she was reduced to sobbing. She was inconsolable; she had never cried as fiercely or as for long before, and would only have a cry of similar magnitude when her mother died, far into the future.

"I can't believe I ever thought you would go for me," Akane said, in between sobs. "I should've know that I was incapable of being what you wanted."

"Shh, shh, Akane, please don't cry," Madoka said, she reached over to touch Akane's cheek, but had her hand slapped away. "Akane, you have a beautiful soul-"

"No, I don't," Akane said, her sobbing finally dying down. "This whole past month I've been manipulating you. I've been changing myself into the kind of person I thought you could love. You don't even know the real me."

"Yes I do," Madoka said. "I saw you trying to act like something you weren't; but at the end of the day you were the same person. The same Akane who made fun of those scrolls at the art museum, and who made armpit noises during the school play."

Madoka looked away. "I know that you're the kind of person who can love someone so much... Far more than they love themselves. I can't condemn you for any of this, Akane. I can only grieve that I can't give you the answer you want to hear."

Akane rose to her feet, and wiped the latest layer of tears from her cheeks. "I think I should leave now, Madoka. Thanks for the ice cream."

Madoka's chin rested on her chest. "I suppose we can't be friends after this, can we?"

Akane shook her head without hesitation. "No, we cannot."

"A pity," Madoka said. "Perhaps, someday..."

"I wouldn't count on it. You're an impossible act to follow, Madoka. I won't ever fall out of love with you."

Madoka said nothing, but nodded silently.

Akane started to walk through the backdoor, but stopped. There was something she needed to do. It pained her to do it; but at least someone could profit from this travesty.

"Kyosuke loves you, you know," Akane said. "In the same way that I do."

Madoka didn't break the silence.

"Why can't you be at least as honest with him as you were with me?" Akane said.

"If he really felt that way about me, he would've told me," Madoka said.

Akane felt a surge of fury, and her crying stopped dead in its tracks. "You're broken, Ayukawa-san. Only sick people get off on unrequited love."

Ayukawa-san said nothing, but Akane got the impression of anger.

"Ja ne-" Akane started, then corrected herself. "Sayonara, Ayukawa-san."

- - - 

Akane did not slam the front door, nor did she storm up to her room. However when her brother saw her in the hallway, he looked at her in goggle-eyed fear and rushed back into his bedroom, clutching his head.

Akane flicked on the light in her room to be greeted with the smiling face of Ayukawa. She smashed her fist into it, shattering the glass of the picture frame.

Akane moved across her room like a whirlwind, destroying all of the pictures of Ayukawa, along with all the artifacts of her doomed attempt to impress her. Charm school pamphlets, art books, music books, the whole shebang ended up in her trash can.

She stopped by her bed and looked up at the full-life poster of Ayukawa that hung on the ceiling. How many hours had she laid there, staring into Ayukawa's eyes, touching herself...

Akane's rage exploded. She climbed onto her bedpost and grabbed at the poster. She missed on the first try, but kept trying. As she finally snagged the poster she lost her balance and crashed to the floor.

Akane gritted her teeth and wheezed; she stared at the torn paper in her bloody hands. It had all been for nothing; FOR NOTHING!

Somewhere in the back of her mind, Akane knew that her rage was consuming her. Her feelings of affection for Ayukawa had been transformed into icy hatred. She didn't want to feel this way—even if she had been rejected. She just couldn't help it, though.  
She stared forlornly at the torn poster she held in her hands. She didn't hate Ayukawa—even after this. Her anger came from frustration, and the helpless realization that she could never impress Ayukawa enough.

Akane started to cry again; she got up and went into her bathroom and cleaned the cut on her hand. She stared at herself in the mirror; she had never seen her eyes so red. She wiped her cheeks clean of tears, but a moment later they were wet again.

Akane walked back into her room and looked at the mess she had made. Perhaps cleaning it up would keep her mind off things, she thought. She swept up as much of the broken glass as she could and put all the mangled photos into her trash basket. She found the scattered enveloped when she was cleaning under her desk. As she stacked them, she noticed a hand-addressed envelope among them. Akane hadn't bothered to look through the envelopes as they arrived; they were all from colleges, she thought.

She sat down and opened the letter. The handwriting was curvy and feminine; Akane looked to the bottom of the last page, and saw it came from Yuki.

Akane let out a sigh of frustration; then realized to her horror that she was behaving the same way that Ayukawa had. How could she be so dismissive of Yuki's feelings?

Akane read the letter all the way through; it was heartbreaking. Yuki was deeply in love with her; perhaps Akane should give her a shot...

NO! Akane's feelings towards Yuki hadn't changed. She supposed it was possible that somewhere, deep down, there was something in Yuki that she could fall in love with; but she doubted it. Akane loved women who were confident and outgoing; and Yuki was neither.

Akane pulled out a writing pad and tried to compose a response; but she wasn't able to do it. It wasn't in her idiom, she realized. Yuki wrote her the letter because she had difficulty expressing herself and was shy; Akane was nothing like that.

Akane checked her watch: it was only five minutes after ten. No use putting it off, she thought.

- - - 

In the Fortress of Pain on the fourth plane of Hell, Mite the fallen sat thinking. Before him hordes of formidable and vile demons writhed; but their stark ugliness and power were nothing in comparison to that of the fortress's dark lord.

(Yuki turned the page).

"There is discord among the new arrivals from the land of the living," the dark lord spoke. "Some have even managed to escape from this Fortress. We must (THWACK!) hunt each of them down and return them to this place. Whereupon I shall increase (THWACK!) their torment a thousandfold!

Yuki put the horror manga down and went over to the window. What the hell was that sound?

Yuki looked out the window and saw Akane Kasuga standing on the pavement below her. Yuki blinked several times, expecting the image to go away. She must be dreaming—but Akane was still there. Yuki pulled the window open.

"Yuki, I need to talk to you," Akane said in a shout that tried to sound like a whisper.

"Wait, I'll be right down," Yuki said.

She started to take off her nightgown; then stopped and pulled the shade. She'd have no problem with Akane seeing her mostly-naked body—but it was best not to overplay her hand.

Two minutes later Yuki, fully dressed, opened the front door and walked out to where Akane was standing.

"Is there somewhere we can go? I think there's a ramen joint by Hoshi's that's still open," Akane said.

"We can talk in here," she said, indicating her house with a jerk of her head. "My parents are visiting my aunt in Saga."

Yuki lead Akane to their den. The couches were a nicely faded blue color, the furniture looked like it had been made out of driftwood. There was a bookcase which was stacked full of board games. It was Yuki's favorite room in the house.

Yuki motioned towards a pair of wicker chairs. Akane took one, and Yuki sat in the one across from her.

"I got your letter, Yuki," Akane said.

"Ah, yeah..." Yuki said. She began to fidget. How was she supposed to act in a situation like this? Was their some etiquette she wasn't aware of?

Akane waited a few moments, then seemed to realize that Yuki wasn't going to say anything more.

"First off," Akane said. "I want to apologize for not being honest with you when this first began. When I started to suspect how you felt about me, I should've talked to you about it."

Yuki was somewhat put-off; this seemed a rather formal discussion for something so intimate. She had a creeping suspicion what Akane's answer was going to be.

"That trick I played on you, when I pretended that guy was my boyfriend; that was cruel. I should've been honest with you from the beginning, and not let this go on for as long as it has. I know the pains of unrequited love all too well, Yuki. I shouldn't have let you go through that," Akane said.

"I don't regret my feelings, Akane," Yuki said.

"I regret that I can never reciprocate them," Akane said.

"Are you sure of that?" Yuki said. Was this denial? The fact that Akane couldn't love her didn't even seem to enter her mind.

"It's a bad time for me, Yuki. My heart has just been broken; and it's made me realize that I needed to tell you the truth," Akane shook her head. "It isn't just that, though. I don't see you in that way, Yuki. So what's the point in pursuing the relationship? Some hope that we could learn to love each other?"

"I'd be willing to give it a try," Yuki said.

Akane shook her head again. "That would be even worse than allowing your unrequited love to fester. It would give you false hope; I know that I can't ever see you in that way. I'm still in love with... this girl. I need to get over her first; and even then... I just can't do it, Yuki. It would be a lie."

To Yuki's shock, Akane began crying. Yuki jumped from her chair and went over to comfort Akane.

"I'm sorry Yuki, I really am. I can't help how I feel; we, of all people, should understand it's pointless to try to change that," Akane sobbed. "I wish there was something I could say or do that could cushion the impact. I don't want you to feel as bad as I'm feeling now."

Yuki stroked Akane's hair. "Then, just for tonight, let me live the lie."

Akane looked up at her in shock, her eyes gleaming with tears. She hesitated for a moment, then embraced Yuki and kissed her on the lips.

- - - 

Yuki awoke just about an hour before dawn. She was alone, but Akane's scent permeated her sheets and the pillow next to her. Yuki leaned over and flicked on the light. Akane was indeed gone.

Sitting on her bedside table was a folded piece of blue-lined notepaper. Yuki picked it up and read it.

_Yuki,_

_My feelings haven't changed. I can't love you the way you need to be_

_loved._

_Please take up painting again. Take it from someone who knows: be_

_who you are. Eventually someone will love you for it._

_-Akane_

Yuki felt her nostril prickle as she read the note, but she managed to keep from crying. It was difficult to feel down after what she had just experienced.

She took her wallet out of the nightstand drawer, and unzipped the pocket in the back. She removed a fine chain anklet and snapped it in place on her right ankle. So this is what not being a virgin felt like, she thought. It felt... good.

She and Akane had made love multiple times; Yuki did it every way she'd ever wanted to do it; and she'd done it with the only person on Earth she wanted to. After that, it was difficult to be sad.

Yuki lay her naked back on her bed and let out a long sigh of contentment. So strange, she thought. She was sure this one-night stand would continue to be the most momentous event of her life; even though it was a dead-end of the path through life she had chosen.

It put her in mind of something her mother had once told her, shortly after her grandmother had died. Why, she asked, did people have to die? What was the point of having life in the first place if you eventually lose it?

Her mother had said that was the point. Life was the most wonderful thing in the universe; and everything came with its price. The only price you could pay for something so wonderful was death. The only way to pay the price for life is to have it for a while, but to eventually lose it. It was the same with Akane.

In those brief tense moments before dawn so long ago, Yuki allowed a sad smile to cross her lips. It had been enough.

The End

Completed: June 6th, 2007

Suggested Reading:

Volume 17 of the Kimagure Orange Road manga

KOR: The Rumbling Spirit

KOR: The War (no references, but it's a damn fine story, if I do say so myself).

KOR: Ordinary World

The fanfics can be found in the RAAC archive, they can't be archived here because they're in script format. For maximum impact, read the stories in the order indicated.

Also, an interesting note: in Scrabble you get a higher score for the "believability" than "verisimilitude". Weird, eh?


End file.
